Synopses & Reviews
Perched above the Indian Ocean and surrounded by lush foliage that blocks out everything but the sea--sweet frangipani, jasmine, and wild orchid--the Hotel Salama is an unlikely place to conduct research. Proud, sharp-tongued, and solitary by disposition, Ingrid Holtz arrives at the hotel in search of her professor, Nick Templeton, to whom she is drawn by interests of a more than academic nature. Templeton is a maverick, as much reviled for his unconventional methods as he is envied for his results. His latest theory has driven him to the island of Pelat, to unravel a legend about an ancient African king said to have brought Islam to the Swahili coast. No one has heard from him in months.
Tangled in a mystery whose clues lurk in the pages of the Koran, and transported into a world where women are possessed by spirit husbands and fresh curses are whispered over tea, Ingrid is forced to realize that there are many things she does not know about this man who inhabits her dreams and haunts her mind. With the help and hindrance of Finn Bergmann, the enigmatic son of the founder of Salama, she begins to uncover a web of alarming incidents. Templeton's research has carried him to the hot core of the island's darkest confrontation. How far will he go in his passion for the truth? What is he willing to do to protect his newfound faith--and where has he gone? Ingrid embarks on a quest that opens her heart and threatens to unravel her mind.
An epic tale of love and faith, An Obvious Enchantment marks the debut of a stunning new literary talent. It is a story about desire--for love, for knowledge, and for God--and about our capacity to ensnare ourselves in the deceptive architecture of our own dreams. Like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, it plunges you from the first page into a sensuous world of seductive characters and duplicitous charm, a world alive with color and atmosphere from which it is hard to emerge without wanting to return.
Review
"As the island air thickens, Ingrid's academic universe collides with the reality of ancient feuds and modern compromises, making this novel, with its shades of Bowles, Maugham and Jacqueline Susann, an edifying and, yes, enchanting tale." LA Times
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"Religious mysticism and contemporary women's issues charge Malarkey's affecting first novel, an uncommon romance charting the restless intellect of an obsessive academic... Ingrid is a complex and seductive character... Her preoccupation with truth invests this multifaceted, ambitious debut with a contemporary relevance." Publishers Weekly
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"A dreamy but authentic tale, studded with seductive characters, shot through with questions of faith and love, and a wholly satisfying read....Its a stunning accomplishment." Seattle Times
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Ingrid is smart, driven and attractive, an amateur sleuth on the trail of her own obsessions. She's daring and determined, and a little naïve. She reminds me of all the reasons I once loved the fearless and compulsive world of Nancy Drew. Portland Mercury
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An exotic tale of escape and adventure with a sexy, feminist twist... its an addictive book Hartford Courrant
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A gripping novel pulls you in, keeps you turning the pages long after you should have turned out the light. Such a book leaves you feeling satisfied, yet wanting more... Tucker Malarkey is a writer to watch. She writes beautifully... and has a way with words. The Free Lance Star
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"Other women dream of fleeing the country for a tropical island; anthropologist Ingrid Holtz does it with a grant to follow her revered professor, Nick Templeton, to an island off the Kenyan coast....You'll be riveted by this romantic adventure novel." Glamour
Review
"Obsession is the theme of Tucker Malarkey's hypnotic fiction debut. Ingrid Holtz, an irrepressible anthropologist, has left the sheltered halls of a Michigan university to pursue work with her former professor, Nick Templeton, an aging scholar doing research on an island off the coast of Africa
In her desperate efforts to find him, she encounters numerous obstacles, including the professor's abandoned journals (written in code) and an enigmatic Dane named Finn with whom Ingrid becomes smitten. Enthralling and elusive, full of captivating characters... Enchantment reads like a captivating travelogue written under the spell of a fever dream." US Weekly
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"A juicy adventure, featuring a bookish but irresistible heroine and a search for an elusive scholar gone mad in the jungle." Time Out
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Every once in a while, an author forces me to slow down and pay closer attention....That is what I call reading. It happened again this week, when I began Tucker Malarkeys debut novel, An Obvious Enchantment... It put me in mind of a David Mamet play, wearing its intellect on its sleeve... readers will be caught up in the books overriding thematic concern: desire its many manifestations, the pursuit of the same and its consequences. Tacoma News Tribune
About the Author
Tucker Malarkey was raised in San Francisco. She attended Georgetown University and was then hired by the Washington Post where she spent the next four years working on the Foreign Desk and then with columnist Haynes Johnson on the book, SLEEPWALKING THROUGH HISTORY, a best-selling account of the Reagan years. Before accepting a magazine job in New York, she decided to go to Africa for three months, visiting an island off the coast of Kenya where there were no cars and only the occasional phone; a place that seemed ideal for figuring out a life plan. The trip that was to last three months lasted two years. Much of the first year was spent on the aforementioned island, where she taught Moslem boys in a broken down school house with dirt floors and decided her life plan would involve writing fiction.
From the island (the setting for AN OBVIOUS ENCHANTMENT) she traveled to South Africa, where Nelson Mandela had just been released. The country was experiencing a euphoric optimism about the future and Ms. Malarkey stayed on to teach English in the townships outside of Capetown while continuing to support herself with freelance magazine work. Because African countries were then penalizing those who stayed in South Africa longer than two months, Ms. Malarkey was denied re-entry to Kenya. She did not return to the island for five years.
Upon returning to America, she was admitted to the Iowa Writers Workshop where she began a novel for which she received a Michener Grant in 1994. She spent the next few years teaching and working on various literary projects between Portland and New York City, while at work on a second novel. She currently teaches writing workshops in Portland's public school system and is the Editor-at-Large for TIN HOUSE magazine, a literary journal based in Portland and New York. She is at work on her third novel.