'A beautiful story of West meeting East and of love that transcends culture, faith and ultimately, tragedy, this is a novel on an epic scale and an astonishingly intimate story' -- Irish Post 'Accounts of the natural world are quite beautiful and the psychological acuteness of some of the novel's events, such as the senseless, brutal killing of a mule by a soldier bent on displaying his power, is effective and disquieting' -- Sydney Morning Herald 'Grapples with faith and science post-Darwin as East and West cultures clash on the steppes of Mongolia in 1865. It is a very special book, a lovely novel for The English Passengers or Stars of the Sea market, and an epic love story beautifully written' -- Bookseller Praise for Sanjida O'Connell -- - 'Taut, complex and highly original' -- The Times on Angel Bird 'Sanjida O'Connell does for sugar what Dava Sobel did for Longitude: make a gripping drama out of dry school lessons' -- Guardian on Sugar: the Grass that Changed the World '[O'Connell] has quite an imagination.' -- Dover Express; Folkestone Herald; Deal + Sandwich Express

Sanjida O'Connell is a TV presenter and producer. She is the author of five previous books, two novels, Theory of Mind and Angel Bird, written in her early twenties and three works of non-fiction, Mindreading: How we Learn to Love and Lie, Sugar: The Grass that Changed the World and Nature's Calendar. She also has a PhD in Theory of Mind.