The Nature of Blood - Hardcover

Like his earlier works, the novels Cambridge and Crossing the River, Caryl Phillips's The Nature of Blood is made up of several stories that take place over a large span of time. The result of this innovative technique is that themes, characters, and incidents resonate against one another, and history is seen not as a straight line but as a circle or a spiral. In one story, a Jewish man abandons his family to fight for the state of Israel. In another, the Moor Othello, another soldier who has left his family, comes to Venice. There, he visits the Jewish ghetto and finds himself astounded that "they should choose to live in this manner." Phillips's most daring feat in this provocative and thoughtful novel, however, may be to write in the first person about a Holocaust survivor just after World War II.

"Eloquent and unique ... [Phillips] offers moving accounts of lives afflicted by racism and ethnic hatred--[His] exploration of how individual journeys and historical forces intersect makes for an unforgettable novel." - Maclean's

"A consummate storyteller.... [Phillips] is one of the best and brightest of contemporary novelists.... [The Nature of Blood] could flounder in the hands of someone without the absolute mastery of historical detail that Phillips commands.... Brilliantly crafted." - The Montreal Gazette

"The Nature of Blood is expertly paced and laced with poetic flashes. Phillips is seamless in his transitions... a skillfully wrought, penetrating dissection of the debilitating and literally maddening effects of ethnic hatred, and of heroic stamina of the human spirit in the face of it." - The Globe and Mail

"Rich and powerful...[Phillips] has written an astonishing novel: ambitious, pithy, beautifully written and -- above all -- brave enough to tackle the great, public issues of our century without pity, prurience or maudlin sentiment." - Independent on Sunday