Description: A young man's yearning for travel brings him to a town full of secrets kept for centuries, and to a girl who has secrets of her own.
Brief description: A best-selling travel writer and the author of the novel _Sunsets of Tulum_, and the popular book for writers _A Writer's Roadmap_, Raymond Avery Bartlett specializes in exotic destinations such as Indonesia, Guatemala, Tanzania, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea, as well as the USA. He has written guidebooks for Lonely Planet, Insight Guide, Moon Handbooks, AA City-Pack, and been featured in a diverse selection of newspapers and magazines. A graduate of the Boston University Creative Writing Program, he taught at BU for several years. His hobbies include surfing and dancing Argentine tango.
Review Quotes:
"Bartlett's stunning novel is a poignant, elegiac mid-20th-century tragedy of wanderlust, loss, obsession, art, and redemption. Neil Chase has been caring for his blind father since he was a teenager, while longing to travel to distant shores. In 1964, 20-something Neil falls in love with both Marinne, a kind French girl, and Japanese ceramics. Marinne, knowing Neil is still compelled to travel, offers to care for his father while he embarks on a yearlong voyage to Japan. A chain of unlikely events lead Neil to the hidden pottery town of Moon Island, where he feels a soul-deep connection to the landscape, the spectacular local celadon-glazed pottery, and the angry, beautiful Miyū, who makes the ceramics along with her father. As Neil learns their craft, he is drawn into their family's tragic story, in which one act will irreversibly alter all their lives. Will Neil go back to what he was before? This deeply affecting and well-constructed novel, with its memorable characters and evocative brilliance, will leave readers with a lingering sense of mournful beauty after they've turned the last page." -- BookLife Reviews
"Gorgeous writing, compelling characters, a surprise on every page, Raymond Avery Bartlett's novel Celadon is captivating. It starts with one of the best opening lines in recent years, seducing the reader and not letting go until the final page. A novel filled with passion, beauty, and sensuality, it will take your breath away. For all the right reasons."
- Devon Ellington, author of Tracking Medusa
"Compelling, moving, and heartfelt on many levels, Celadon offers a rare gift of cross-cultural inspection and love that will linger in the mind long after Neil discovers a new passion as important as the truths he's hidden about his heart's desires. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but Celadon reveals that it is possible to come full circle."
- D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
"Alluring from the opening line, Bartlett's prose shimmers like the celadon glaze he describes. Nuanced and thoughtfully constructed, the narrative propels us into and through the lives of his characters. In this near perfect vessel of a book, we encounter the surprising beauty that almost always complements our human frailty. Each page whets the appetite for more. This is a book that cannot be put down."
- Meg Tyler, Boston University, author of Poor Earth