The Blue Afternoon

Book:	The Blue Afternoon
Author:	William Boyd
Honors:	1995 LATimes–Fiction winner Score: 10.45
Genres:	Fiction books
Publisher:	Vintage

Sprawling between three continents and two historical eras, William Boyd’s lushly atmospheric novel cements his reputation as the heir to the grand narrative traditions of Joseph Conrad and W. Somerset Maugham. The novel opens in Los Angeles in 1936, when architect kay Fischer is approached by an elderly man named Salvador Carriscant, who claims to be her father—and who insists that she accompany him to Lisbon in a search for the great lost love of his life.

En route to Portugal, Carriscant, a former surgeon in the war-torn Philippines, tells Kay the story behind her secret parentage. Set against the sultry blue afternoons of Manila in 1902, his is a tale of grisly murders, ghastly medical rivalries, and the making of a miraculous flying machine. it is also the story of an illicit passion that will consume Carriscant’s life and his daughters’ imagination.

Suspenseful, stylishly written, and teeming with historical detail, The Blue Afternoon is a triumph.

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