Author Description

In the tradition of Michael Mail's first novel, CORALENA, VIRGIN ROSE explores the legacy of the Holocaust for a modern-day youth. Set almost exclusively in London's East End, and particularly at St Mary's College on the Mile End Road, the novel revolves around a young girl, Suzy, as she embarks on a university course in photograpy. Her first year project revolves around the theme of 'community', and she soon becomes part of an ageing Jewish group in Stepney, photographing its eccentric members as they go about their various social and religious engagements. The charismatic Eli resides at the heart of this small, close-knit communtiy, and he and Suzy become friends as he shares with her the secrets of his past - his 'betrayal' of his wife in the Second World War. But their friendship sours when an infamous revisionist historian arrives at the University to talk on his denial of the Holocaust. Convinced that circumstances are ripe for an uprising of anti-semitism, Eli begins to lose his grasp on reality, and his friendship with Suzy becomes dangerously - indeed fatally - obsessive.