The Red Thread - Softcover

The Red Thread, set in contemporary Shanghai, is a love story and a skilled implicit defence of art. Shen Fu works at the first art auction house to open in Shanghai in recent times. An old man brings him an antique manuscript entitled "Six Chapters of the Floating World" to put up for auction. The last two chapters are missing. Shen begins reading the book and becomes so engrossed that he pulls it from the auction. He meets a young Australian artist named Ruth, who has moved to China as a result of a terminal-illness diagnosis. Ruth paints in

the traditional style known as exquisite brush ... In each picture there was a contrast between a traditional element and something contemporary. A black and orange butterfly alighting on a computer screen ... A tiny gold Buddha sitting beside an ultrasound scanner that showed the shadowy form of an unborn child. The past and the present juxtaposed. Creation and destruction. Nature and technology. Contending powers. Yin and Yang. Each picture was stamped with a red seal.

The style and concerns of Nicholas Jose's novel are neatly encapsulated in Ruth's art. Ruth and Shen embark on a quest to find the missing two chapters of the manuscript. Their love-story becomes interwoven with the plot of the manuscript. Past and present blur, truth and fiction merge in a Jose's multi-layered description of art as love and love as art. Jose's previous works include The Custodians and Chinese Whispers, in which he traverses the globe from Europe to Asia to the Australian outback.

Nicholas Jose is the author of The Custodians, The Rose Crossing, and three other novels, and is the translator of two volumes of Chinese poetry. Born in London, he lived for many years in China and now resides in Sydney, Australia.