The red thread - Nicholas Jose

An elegant and multi-layered novel, drawing comparisons with Memoirs of a Geisha and The English Patient, The Red Thread is rich, moving and unforgettable. Set in contemporary Shanghai, it is the story of an intense passion between Shen, a Chinese art dealer, and Ruth, a young Australian woman. As they fall in love, Shen finds that their lives are strangely mirrored in a rare Chinese manuscript which is nearly two hundred years old and of which the last two chapters have never been found. When Ruth falls prey to a terminal illness, Shen embarks on a desperate quest for the missing chapters hoping somehow to find a cure for the disease. But time is running out . . .