Sacred Hunger (how's THAT for a title?)

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth, W.W. Norton & Co, 1992, ISBN 0393311147.

Thomas Flanagan wrote in The New York Times, "...a book of grace and meditative elegance, and of great moral seriousness." Damn. Wish I'D written that. Or that someone would write that about MY books. (Though it may not be quite so appropriate for "How the Russian Snow Maiden Helped Santa Claus"). This is Georgian English angst, power-hungryness, domination, greed, ignorance and introspection at their classic best. The look into the "triangular" slave trade of the period is infuriating and depressing in equal measures, though fascinating through the eyes of a contemporary. It's believably accurate historically. This is a yarn, alright, and a good read, with well-developed characters and the smell of old and unpleasant worlds you can't imagine, but can picture just a little better through Mr. Unsworth's work. No wonder this guy won a Booker Prize.