«The Physician of Sanlúcar» by Jonathan Falla

A beautifully written and absorbing story of exile and redemption set against the stark Patagonian wilderness at the start of the modern age.

Matthieu Macanan has fled his home in France, to work as a doctor in a remote region of South America where his past is unknown.

There he tends to the local tribes and tries to avoid contact with European settlers. When Silke Kahn and her husband Theo fly into his world with plans to run an airmail service in the area, his reclusive life is irrevocably altered.While Matthieu struggles to resist his attraction to Silke, hostilities created by the coming war escalate, drawing the local people into their orbit and forcing the doctor to decide which side he is on.

But what is he hiding from? Can he survive the disease and trouble the Europeans unleash? In offering refuge to Silke Kahn has Matthieu finally committed a fatal move?

«It’s a modus operandi carried out with poetic subtlety, hard to spot because the writing itself is so joyously accomplished, light, almost airborne. And witty too, with a wry, anachronistic treat for fans of the movie, Casablanca, dropped like a feather to tickle the fancy. A smirk in the slipstream. Go, discover!» - Tom Adair, The Scotsman

“Jonathan Falla's work was new to me. Looking around since I see that this was five years in the writing. It shows. It's a fabulous book, beautifully constructed. Set in Patagonia around 1915, we follow a Frenchman, Matthieu Macanan, who goes ever more remote with his doctoring skills till there's mostly just the native Indians to serve. Early flying machines, backstories and romance are thrown into the mix … in plot terms, nothing is wasted but it doesn't seem 'set-up' at all as you read. A little Graham Greene-like perhaps, THE POWER AND THE GLORY, or it has such scope as Peter Carey's OSCAR AND LUCINDA. Heartily recommended. "

— 5* Martin Goodman, Goodreads




About the author

The Physician of Sanlúcar is Jonathan Falla's fourth novel, after Blue Poppies, Poor Mercy and Glenfarron. Jamaican-born Falla lives in Scotland where he is director of studies for the St Andrews Creative Writing Summer School. He has won a Creative Scotland Award, a PEN story prize, and other awards for his fiction, drama and film writing. See www.jonathanfalla.co.uk.

 

Praise for other works

“Poor Mercy is an outstanding novel.” Sunday Times

“An original, unflinching work… the strength of the writing and the subject carry all before them.” New York Times

“Coolly and confidently written, this is fiction at its most bracing.” Baltimore Sun

“Assured, without a trace of self-indulgence… it knows where it is going, and that is nowhere near home.” The Scotsman