'A remarkable and beautiful book' Daily Telegraph

'Like Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca or Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Black Narcissus is one of those rare novels that combine huge popular appeal with emotional subtlety and literary skill' Anne Chisholm

High in the Himalayas, the old mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. Built for the General's harem, laughter and music once floated out over the gorge. But now it sits abandoned; windswept and haunting.

The General's son bestows the palace to the Sisters of Mary, and 'the House of Women', as it was once known, becomes the Convent of St Faith. Close to the heavens, the nuns feel inspired, working fervently to establish their school and hospital. But the isolation and emptiness of the mountain become increasingly unsettling, and passions long repressed emerge with tragic consequences . . .