Air and Fire - Softcover

'A drama of thwarted passions, the conflict between masculine reason and female intuition, Enlightenment rationality and native superstition ... Thoroughly enjoyable' Guardian 'A haunting atmosphere, skilfully described ... Surreal and evanescent' New York Times Book Review 'Thomson has an astonishing eye for detail, coupled with a flair for plots that are both neat and profound' Times Literary Supplement 'Extraordinary ... Human passions in all their grandeur and frailty are explored under a hot Mexican sky ... Thomson writes with an intensity that mirrors the emotions - all strongly felt - of his unusual cast of characters' Daily Mail

At the turn of the century Theophile and Suzanne Valence sail into the Mexican copper-mining town of Santa Sofia. Theo has travelled here to build a metal church designed by his mentor, the great engineer Gustave Eiffel. His wife Suzanne, wayward and graced with the gift of clairvoyance is deeply in love and has insisted on accompanying him. But the magical landscape inspires no answering passion in Theo. In her loneliness she turns to the American gold prospector Wilson Pharaoh, and soon he, like the town and its inhabitants, falls under her spell, an enchantment as seductive as Suzanne herself.