Name: Terra Firma
Price: 939.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Stephen Platt
ISBN: 9781912460373

Type

Physical Book

Author

Stephen Platt

Publisher

Leveret Publishing

Language

English

Pages

350

Format

Hardcover

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm

Weight

0.67 kg.

ISBN13

9781912460373

Synopsis "Terra Firma"

Terra Firma - very large, about which nothing is known", was how Columbus described the mainland of South America. David finds himself on anything but firm ground when he arrives in Venezuela to work for Jordi's uncle Manuel, the Minister of Planning. Jordi's exotic family befriend him - the uncles who chased out the last dictator, the grandfather, too old for deep-sea fishing but still chasing young women at ninety. He finds cliffs to rock climb in the vast coastal range and the empty interior. At the Ministry he meets Chelo, who takes him to see a fortune-telling witch when they should be working. And he discovers that the site of the new town he is helping plan is on an earthquake fault and that his boss, Manuel, owns the land.

Stephen Platt

(Author)

View Author's Page

Stephen R. Platt is an American historian specialized in the history of modern China, with a particular focus on the 19th century and the foreign relations of the Qing dynasty. He is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and earned his PhD in Chinese history from Yale University in 2004. His research focuses on the conflicts and transformations that marked the decline of the Chinese Empire and its interaction with Western powers.

Among his most notable works is Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War (2012), which received the Cundill History Prize. In 2018, he published Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (2024), where he analyzes the events that led to the First Opium War. This book was a finalist for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

See less