| Summary: |
Situated on a Turkish island, Portmantle might be the strangest, most exclusive artists' colony around. Its brilliant residents linger for years, all expenses paid and adopting new names. Relieved of the burdens of time and ego, they are free to create. Elspeth Conroy (aka "Knell") is a Scottish painter who has been at Portmantle for a decade, a refugee from the hectic London art scene. Her fellow exiles include a novelist whose sole book became a classic and paralyzed his muse, a play-wright who left behind her family, and an architect obsessing over an unfinished cathedral. Their insular world shatters when a bedraggled seventeen-year-old arrives at the gates, his background and talents unknown. As Knell searches for answers, she delves into her own history, tracing the path that led her to Portsmantle: learning from a gruff alcoholic mentor; her early successes and crushing failures; a journey across the Atlantic and into the psychiatrist's office; and a grand commission of astronomical significance. -- |
