Iridescence — Peter Wells

A novel of scandal and secrets in the Victorian age, spanning two decades and two sides of the world. Can you keep a secret?Remittance men were sent away from Britain to live in a colony on a small and regular sum - a remittance. Usually behind them was some disgrace or scandal, a secret that each man carried, often to the grave. Samuel Barton comes from a brilliant coterie of Londoners for whom make-believe and secrets are their very soul. But what happens when life on the stage is taken into the streets? Samuel is blown to Napier in 1871. He is damaged goods, but he carries with him an earring made up of fabulous jewels. With this earring he will buy his freedom. But can he keep his past a secret?This richly imagined novel was runner up for the Deutz Medal Winner for Fiction at the Montana Book of the Year Awards 2004.