The Alchemist’s Apprentice

Madagascar Rhodes was probably the most famous author in the world.His magical, heart-warming novel, ‘The Alchemist’s Apprentice’ (about the adventures of a young Jewish girl in Malta during World War II) enchanted millions of readers. And yet, strangely, you’ve never heard of him. Or his amazing book. In fact, it’s as if Madagascar Rhodes never existed.To unravel the tangled threads of reality and – what? Fantasy? Dreams? Plain old-fashioned fabrication? – you have to go back to the beginning. To a rather odd New Year’s Eve party in 1996. Or earlier, to a chance encounter with a ghostly girl in a sunny English garden. Or perhaps it all really began when an unsuccessful novelist called Roderick Bent embarked on a routine train journey from King’s Cross and found himself travelling into an inexplicable nightmare …The Alchemist’s Apprentice is a tragi-comic novel about love, loyalty and the power of imagination, in which the line between the universe of fiction and the world of reality disappears.Praise for The Alchemist’s Apprentice:‘Funny, weird and intricate … A gifted, original writer’ - Sunday Telegraph‘Intelligent, provocative and utterly beguiling … Dronfield writes with a breezy good humour and insouciant flair and … offers some thought-provoking meditations on the nature of fiction and its relationship with reality. He also has a flawless control of the mechanisms of fiction, playing his literary tricks with baffling dexterity’ - The Times‘A captivating metaphysical mystery and an otherworldly love story’ - The Sunday Times‘The story mixes elements of Iain Banks’ wilfully perverse attitude with the absurdity of Douglas Adams at his best … A fine read’ - Scotland on SundayJeremy Dronfield was born in Wales. After completing a doctorate in archaeology at Cambridge, he began writing fiction. His first novel, The Locust Farm, was shortlisted for the John Creasey Memorial award for debut crime fiction. He also has a parallel career as a ghostwriter and non-fiction author. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz. Read more