Book description
The Nautilus, a strange building shaped like the chambered shell of
the same name, was built in South London in the early 1930s. Designed
on Modernist and Utopian principles, it was a haven for a floating
community of cosmopolitan refugees, intellectuals and artists.
Now, at the end of the century, only two of the original inhabitants
still occupy their chambers - Celeste Zylberstein, joint architect
with her late husband of the Nautilus, and Francis Campion, an elderly
poet. Gus Crabb, a dealer in bric-a-brac, is the only other resident
until, to the Nautilus, like a hermit crab seeking a home, comes
Rowena Snow. Of Indian/Scottish parentage, orphaned, without family or
friends, Rowena is in search of her own Utopia - or the Heligoland of
her childhood imagination.
Shorlisted for the Orange Prize for fiction and the Whitbread
Novel Award.
Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh. She is the author of five
collections of stories -
Babies in Rhinestones
,
Dreams of Dead Women's Handbags
,
The Laughing Academy,
The World's Smallest Unicorn
and
The Atmospheric Railway: New and Selected Stories
. Her novels include
Dunedin
,
The Orchard on Fire
(which was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize) and
The Artist's Widow
.
