The Seeds of Singing — Kay McGrath

"A gigantic, sprawling blockbuster... a careening emotional adventure... heaven and hell bump head-on... a winner!" “High adventure,” and “A whale of a story in a book that can't be put down!” to quote three book reviewers from the novel's original international release. Published by Dell and the United Kingdom's New English Library in 1983, translated into three additional languages (English, French, Swedish and later, Chinese in 2009) and sold in nine countries, Seeds of Singing's background is the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia, Borneo and New Guinea) before, during, and after World War II. The story begins in 1939 with an anthropological expedition deep into the unknown and dangerous interior of the unexplored Pacific island of Dutch New Guinea. The expedition falls innocent victim to the violent uprising of New Guinea tribesmen sparked by the presence of colonial Dutch officials. The following cataclysmic upheaval of World War II in the Pacific sweeps the expedition's survivors into the dramatic events of the Japanese invasion of the Indies and the post-war Indonesian struggle for independence from Dutch rule. “The book's descriptions of the New Guinea tribes and their culture as well as the unusual sides of the war the book covers and the authentic way in which the Pacific war is fully evoked …combine a narrative pace that never flags,” Editor-in-Chief, Dell, 1983. Above all, Seeds of Singing is the bittersweet love story of two anthropologists, trapped by violent circumstances, who share a passion and respect for the primitive societies they study and a fierce love for each other, even as honor and duty to others tears them apart. “Here's a gigantic, sprawling blockbuster saga of two star-crossed lovers who share brief bliss in a jungle paradise before World War II tears their lives to shreds. Part I advances a sophisticated Heart of Darkness theme…savagery in Part II joins the World Powers slugging it out in the Pacific. Heaven and hell bump head-on in this emotionally careening adventure…a winner,” Los Angeles Times, 1983. “Involving…intelligent…skillfully woven,” Publisher's Weekly, 1983. “The book took me away completely,” Katherine Falk, Romantic Times, 1983. “Painstakingly researched and convincingly described,” Washington Post, 1983. The print rights to the book were recently sold by Random House to China and it has since been translated into Chinese (2009) reflecting the wide appeal and continued interest in the story the book has to tell.