"Anyone who has lived as long as I have, and who has done the things I have, knows there will come a reckoning."

Uprooted from her Shanghai childhood, young Cassandra is sent with her father and twin brother to live on the Black Isle. A teeming British colony near the equator, the Isle is a seaport haunted by a restive multitude of ghosts . . . ghosts that only Cassandra can see.

Over the next years, lonely, haunted Cassandra grows up into a fearless young woman, but the Isle's dark forces won't let her go.

As she becomes involved with three dangerously charismatic men, Cassandra will find her own strength—and identity—increasingly tested, even as she plays a key role in the Isle's rise from colonial backwater to bustling cosmopolitan city. Taking readers from the 1920's to the present day, from the Japanese occupation during World War II to the booming post-war period and the radical transformations of the 20th century, THE BLACK ISLE is a visionary and moving epic.

Sandi Tan was born in Singapore. She attended University of Kent in the UK and received an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University. Her short films have shown at major festivals and museums around the world, including the New York Film Festival and MoMA. She lives in Pasadena, California with her husband, the critic John Powers, and their cat Nico. THE BLACK ISLE is her debut novel.