From the author ofThe Gustav Sonata

Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land near Christchurch threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek he is seized by a rapturous obsession with the voluptuous riches awaiting him deep in the earth. Abandoning his farm and family, he sets off alone for the new gold-fields over the Southern Alps, a moral wilderness where many others, under the seductive dreams of 'the colour', are violently rushing to their destinies.

By turns both moving and terrifying,The Colouris about a quest for the impossible, an attempt to mine the complexities of love and explore the sacrifices to be made in the pursuit of happiness.

Over a million Rose Tremain books sold

A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotionIndependent I

There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose TremainIrish Times

Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effectThe Times

Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists Salman Rushdie

Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness Marcel Theroux,Guardian

Rose Tremains novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won several awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award(The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories),the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music&Silence) and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Sacred Country). Her most recent novel,The Gustav Sonata, was aSunday TimesTop Ten Bestseller. It won the National Jewish Book Award in the US, the South Bank Sky Arts Award in the UK and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

www.rosetremain.co.uk