In this Booker Prize-winning work set in colonial America, Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs his father's fortune; and his nephew, who sails on the ill-fated ship. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

This vast, vividly realistic historical novel follows the crew of a slave-trading vessel from its Liverpool shipyard through days at anchor bartering human cargo on the Guinea Coast, then on beyond the slaver's disease-ridden and mutinous Middle Passage. With an epic ambition that seems suited to its 18th-century setting, Unsworth ( Stone Virgin ) takes on a big theme--greed, the animating ``sacred hunger'' of the title--but at the same time fills his huge canvas with the alternately fascinating and horrifying details of shipboard life, colonial plunder and power struggles, the London clubs of absentee sugar lords, even a pidgin Utopia created by slaves and seamen on unclaimed Florida coast. Deftly utilizing a flood of period detail, Unsworth has written a book whose stately pace, like the scope of its meditations, seems accurately to evoke the age. Tackling here a central perversity of our history--the keeping of slaves in a land where ``all men are created equal''--Unsworth illuminates the barbaric cruelty of slavery, as well as the subtler habits of politics and character that it creates. As intricate as it is immense, this masterwork rewards every turn of its 640 pages. (July) one with a continuing fascination for readers and authors alike--Unsworth illuminates its cruel ties and miscarriages, its floggings and murders, as well as the subtler habits of politics and character that it creates. As intricate as it is immense, this masterwork rewards every turn of its 640 pages. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

With its graphic depiction of the 18th-century slave trade and a society driven by the desire to maximize profit regardless of the human cost, this new novel by the author of Pascali's Island (Penguin, 1988) offers a dark view of human nature clearly relevant to our own time. William Kemp hopes to recoup his losses in cotton speculation by entering the Triangular Trade. As ship's doctor, his nephew Matthew experiences firsthand the horrors of shipboard life, ultimately leading a revolt that lands the crew and remaining slaves on the southeastern coast of Florida. Here they try to establish ``a paradise place,'' but events force Matthew to conclude that ``nothing a man suffers will prevent him from inflicting suffering on others. Indeed, it will teach him the way.'' Though the pace drags at times, taken as a whole this is a masterful effort that delivers an important message. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.-- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Barry Unsworth is the author of "Losing Nelson", "After Hannibal", "Morality Play", the Booker Prize-winning "Sacred Hunger", & many other works. He lives in Italy.

(Publisher Provided) Barry Unsworth, 1930 - Unsworth is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has held Literary Residencies at the Universities of Durham, Newcastle and Liverpool in Britain and Lund in Sweden. He was also a Visiting Professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1998-99.

His first fiction novel, "The Hide" (1970), chronicles the corruption of innocence. It's narrated by two characters, Simon and Josh, and tells the story of Simon digging a secret system of tunnels, for seclusion and spying, at his sister Audrey's estate. The seemingly strong and innocent Josh takes a job at the estate as a gardener and Simon is worried that he'll find his labyrinth. Unsworth also wrote "Mooncranker's Gift" (1973), "The Idol Hunter" (1980), "Stone Virgin" (1986), and "The Partnership" (1992). Also published in 1992 was "Sacred Hunger," which won the Booker Prize for that year.

"Morality Play" (1995) is a historical novel that takes place in the late fourteenth-century England. The narrator, Nicholas Barber, is a priest on the run from the Church and a jealous husband. Nicholas comes upon a troupe of traveling players who just lost one of their own, and he takes the dead man's clothes and joins the troupe. In an effort to draw a larger crowd, the troupe decides to do a play on the murder of a boy and the young woman who stands convicted. As the players reenact the events leading to the murder of the boy, they begin to see discrepancies and are led to the realization that the murderer is still at large. The moral issues addressed in this novel include whether the players should benefit from the death of a child and show the inevitable relationship between art and truth. "Morality Play" was short-listed for the Booker Prize.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.