num_pages: 395
description: *Winner of the 2000 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best First Book*Shortlisted for the 1999 QSPELL Prize for Best First Book It is by no means clear just how much control Jeremy Davenant has over his own destiny. For he's convinced that the blueprint of his future already exists - on a page picked from a random book. Romantic, fatalistic, quixotic, he blithely teaches with forged credentials at a Montreal university while waiting for his life to unfold. Yet one glance from a dark lady in the street below, and his life veers into chaotic mischance and obsession.The trouble is, Jeremy's world is full of signs. The Page - ripped out of an encyclopedia and given to him in childhood by his "uncle" Gerard is supposed to chart out his life, and somehow the Zulu tyrant Shaka, the Indian love epic Shakuntala, and the city of Shakhtyorsk in the Ukraine all start to feature in Jeremy's life - along with William Shakespeare and, of course, his Dark Lady.But Milena's life requires as much decoding as the Page, and Jeremy stumbles after her into farce, terror, and, for a brief spell, bliss.
language: English
title: Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain
titlecomplete: Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain
genres: Fiction
ratings_count: 120
places: Montreal, Quebec (Montréal, Québec)
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best First Book, awardedAt: 915177600000
name: QWF (Quebec Writer's Federation) Award
category: Best First Book
publisher: Thistledown Pr Ltd