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The Fiery Cross
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Synopsis
The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
1771: the Colony of North Carolina stands in an uneasy balance, with the rich, colonial aristocracy on one side and the struggling pioneers of the backcountry on the other. Between them stands Jamie Fraser, a man of honour, a man of worth. Exiled from his beloved Scotland, he is at last possessed of the land he has longed for. By his side his extraordinary wife, Claire, a woman out of time and out of place, blessed with the uneasy gift of the knowledge of what is to come. In the past, that knowledge has brought both danger and deliverance to Jamie and Claire. Now it could be a flickering torch that will light their way through the perilous years ahead - or might ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes. The Fiery Cross is by turns poignant, page-turning, meticulous in its historical detail and searingly passionate.
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Comparison: Will Davenport, Reay Tannahill, Jean M Auel
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Reviews
The fifth epic tale in the world-wide bestselling series of novels featuring time travellers Claire and Jamie Fraser in which the setting is North Carolina in 1771 where the conflict between the rich colonial planters and the struggling back country pioneers is threatening to explode. Jamie is a man of property but Claire is known notoriously as a witch. And she knows that they must survive the dangers of the oncoming Revolution.
The fifth of Gabaldon's magical historical sagas begins in 1770. Claire and Jamie Fraser and her daughter Brianna with her husband and baby son are starting a new life in the back-country of North Carolina. Well-born Jamie, courtesy of his friend the Governor of the Colony, holds the title to a large grant of rugged, uncultivated land in the mountains which he plans to tame, and share with his fellow-exiles. In return he must raise a regiment of fighting men, something which makes him uneasy - he's seen enough of war. Claire, though, knows that another one is coming - and soon. Ever since she learned to 'travel through the stones
from one century to another she
's been both helped and plagued by what seems an unnatural prescience and the stored memories of other lives which have given her an education and abilities others lack. Medical experience in the 20th century has endowed her with the skills to heal the sick and injured, but not access to the drugs and equipment she sometimes needs. Even ordinary life in the mountains, with its extreme weather conditions and aggressive wildlife, brings new challenges every day, among them the sheer slog of keeping everyone alive and healthy - and reasonably clean. But if the land they live on is exacting it is also beautiful, and there is a lot of laughter, music, companionship, stimulating talk and conjugal love: tender, erotic and uninhibited. But as time passes Claire becomes increasingly anxious about the coming War of Independence. In the end they must make a choice between the war and another journey through the stones which could be almost as dangerous; and will inevitably lead to yet another unknown place and time. Long as it is, the novel's exuberance, invention and thought-provoking ideas never diminish. It's the kind of book that takes over your life - and stays with you. (Kirkus UK)'
About the Author
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Diana Gabaldon is the author of the international bestsellers Cross Stitch, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross and A Breath of Snow and Ashes - all featuring Claire and Jamie Fraser. The lastest book in the series, An Echo in the Bone, is published in January 2010.
Although American by birth,
Diana has become fascinated by the history of Scotland, England, France
and the USA in the mid-18th century when the struggles that would
determine the shape of the modern world were taking place. She lives in
Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband and their children.
Photo © Nancy Castaldo
Diana Gabaldon on her influences...
I know writers of novels who say they don't read fiction at all while working on a book, out of fear of "being influenced" by what they read. I am struck by horror at the thought of going years without being able to read fiction (though perhaps these people write faster than I do, and take long vacations between books?)—but more struck by the sheer silliness of this.
Everything writers see, think, and experience influences their work. How could it not? Now, it's true that people do ask writers, "Where do you get your ideas?" and that writers--out of facetiousness or desperation--give answers like, "From the Sears catalog" (or "From Ideas.com," depending on the writer's vintage). But the truth is that writers get ideas from every damn thing they see, hear, smell, touch, taste, think, feel, or do—including the books they read.
Naturally, one wants to develop a unique voice, but do kids learn to talk without ever being talked to? You have an individual voice, by virtue of being an individual. And your individuality is composed of your essential God-given spark of personality and of the sum total of the things you encounter in life. Now, whether each encounter is a bruising collision or a fruitful act of love…who knows? But all of it is grist to a writer's mill; so much should be obvious, if one reads at all widely.
Personally, I learned to read at the age of three, and have read non-stop ever since. I'll be 58 next week; you can read a lot of books in fifty-five years. I'm sure that every single book I've ever read has had some influence on me as a writer, whether negative (I've read a lot of books with the mounting conviction that I would never in my life do something like that) or positive.
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