The Nature of Blood - Softcover

"An astonishing novel: ambitious, pithy, beautifully written and - above all - brave enough to tackle the great, public issues of our century without pity, prurience or maudlin sentiment" (Independent)

"A potent and ambitious fiction, a joy to read, and perhaps its authors best work to date" (Scotland on Sunday)

"Phillips is a cool stylist whose intricately structured work builds with a slow-burning, emotional power, and here is some of his finest writing to date" (Guardian)

"An extraordinarily perceptive and intelligent novel, and a haunting one" (New York Times)

The Nature of Blood is an unforgettable novel about loss and persecution, about courage and betrayal, and about the terrible pain yet absoulte necessity of human memory.

A young Jewish woman growing up in Germany in the middle of the twentieth century and an African general hired by the Doge to command his armies in sixteenth century Venice are bound by personal crisis and momentous social conflict. What emerges is Europe's age-old obsession with race, with sameness and difference, with blood.