The Touch: A Novel

About this book

Not since The Thorn Birds has Colleen McCullough written a novel of such broad appeal about a family and the Australian experience as The Touch. At its center is Alexander Kinross remembered as a young man in his native Scotland only as a shiftless boilermakers apprentice and a godless rebel. But when years later he writes from Australia to summon his bride his Scottish relatives quickly realize that he has made a fortune in the goldfields and is now a man to be reckoned with. Arriving in Sydney after a difficult voyage the sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Drummond meets her husband-to-be and discovers to her dismay that he frightens and repels her. Offered no choice she marries him and is whisked at once across a wild uninhabited countryside to Alexanders own town named Kinross after himself. In the crags above it lies the worlds richest gold mine. Isolated in Alexanders great house with no company save Chinese servants Elizabeth finds that the intimacies of marriage do not prompt her husband to enlighten her about his past lifeor even his present one. She has no idea that he still has a mistress the sensual tough outspoken Ruby Costevan whom Alexander has established in his town nor that he has also made Ruby a partner in his company rapidly expanding its interests far beyond gold. Ruby has a son Lee whose father is the head of the beleaguered Chinese community; the boy becomes dear to Alexander who fosters his education as a gentleman. Captured by the very different natures of Elizabeth and Ruby Alexander resolves to have both of them. Why should he not? He has the fabled Midas Toucha combination of curiosity boldness and intelligence that he applies to every situation and which fails him only when it comes to these two women. Although Ruby loves Alexander desperately Elizabeth does not. Elizabeth bears him two daughters: the brilliant Nell so much like her father; and the beautiful haunting Anna who is to present her father with a torment out of which for once he cannot buy his way. Thwarted in his desire for a son Alexander turns to Rubys boy as a possible heir to his empire unaware that by keeping Lee with him he is courting disaster. The stories of the lives of Alexander Elizabeth and Ruby are intermingled with those of a rich cast of characters and after many twists and turns come to a stunning and shocking climax. Like The Thorn Birds Colleen McCulloughs new novel is at once a love story and a family saga replete with tragedy pathos history and passion. As few other novelists can she conveys a sense of place: the desperate need of her characters men and women rootless in a strange land to create new beginnings.