Hy Brasil - Tapa blanda

After fraudulently winning a writing competition, Sidony Redruth is sent by her editor to write the first-ever travel book on Hy Brasil, a near-mythical island somewhere in the Atlantic, whose very existence has been a matter of debate as late as the nineteenth century. Elphinstone's plot takes the island location as its starting point, throws in some old-fashioned piracy - a lost treasure, modern-day drug smuggling - political intrigue, an active volcano and a tragic love affair. Told through Sidony's notes for her book, Hy Brasil has all the elements of an adult adventure story, but it is also a contemporary thriller with literary influences ranging from The Tempest and Treasure Island to Moby Dick.

Margaret Elphinstone is the author of four previous novels: The Incomer (1987), A Sparrow's Flight (1989), Islanders (1994) and The Sea Road (2000). She is currently researching her next novel, Voyageurs, a historical adventure novel set against the backdrop of the British/American war of 1812 in the Great Lakes area. She lives in Glasgow.