What do you think?
Rate this book
Birthmarks
Paperback
Published January 1, 1990
About the author
Patrick Roscoe
9 books4 followersatrick Roscoe was born on the Spanish island of Formentera, and spent his childhood in Tanzania, East Africa.
He was educated in England and Canada, then at sixteen ventured on his own into the world to embark on the quest which would be documented, in various forms, in his fiction.
Moving between the streets of California and the jungle of Mexico, he worked for several years (1981-1985) on early drafts of his first novel (and third-published book) God's Peculiar Care, and also wrote the stories of longing and loss that would form his debut collection Beneath the Western Slopes.
By the time of that first book's appearance (1987), Patrick Roscoe had spent several years completing his next book Birthmarks in Salobrena, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. In this period, he continued to pursue a nomadic existence that saw him drift with little more than his manuscripts-in-progress between Paris to Berlin, between Athens and Rome.
In 1988, he moved inland from Salobrena to Sevilla, where during the next four years he completed the final draft of God's Peculiar Care and wrote his fourth book Love Is Starving For Itself. From his base in Sevilla, Patrick Roscoe made increasingly frequent journeys to the Western Sahara of North Africa, each time venturing deeper into the desert, farther across the dunes.
In 1991, a decade after his journey began, the magic door for which he had been searching during those years suddenly appeared. Miraculously, this door stood open; miraculously, Patrick Roscoe was invited into the wondrous room beyond. Dazzled by the light emitting from inside, blinded by its power and beauty, he committed an error: instead of entering the magic door, he stepped through a door adjacent to it. Instead of entering the strong, warm and lasting light which he had travelled back and forth across the world to find, and to which each word of each of his books had served to bring him nearer, he discovered himself to be in a place of unremitting darkness and unrelieved cold. Call this the laboratory of love. His entry into the laboratory would be documented in the final pages of Patrick Roscoe's fifth book The Lost Oasis.
In the following fifteen years, Patrick Roscoe has published just two further books: aside from his novel The Lost Oasis (1995), there has been only the story collection The Truth About Love (2001), which presents the results of his experiments within the laboratory.
Patrick Roscoe currently divides his time between Mexico, Spain and North Africa, while also maintaining a Canadian residence; on another level, he has entered his second decade within the laboratory of love, which is always anywhere and everywhere and nowhere, and in which he remains both scientist and specimen. His prize-winning short stories continue to be widely published and anthologized in Canada, the US and England; some have been adapted for film and radio. There are several completed but not yet published book-length manuscripts (novels and short story collections - see in progress). With the novel The Reincarnation of Linda Lopez, the cycle of work that began with his very first set beneath the western slopes has been brought to conclusion; with The Brale Chronicles, he has moved from exploring his experience through myth and symbol to exploring those of earlier generations of family. It has become increasingly clear that, despite its variety and breadth and range, all his fiction documents Patrick Roscoe's investigation into the truth about love. As years pass, he holds onto hope that one day he will write himself free.
He was educated in England and Canada, then at sixteen ventured on his own into the world to embark on the quest which would be documented, in various forms, in his fiction.
Moving between the streets of California and the jungle of Mexico, he worked for several years (1981-1985) on early drafts of his first novel (and third-published book) God's Peculiar Care, and also wrote the stories of longing and loss that would form his debut collection Beneath the Western Slopes.
By the time of that first book's appearance (1987), Patrick Roscoe had spent several years completing his next book Birthmarks in Salobrena, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. In this period, he continued to pursue a nomadic existence that saw him drift with little more than his manuscripts-in-progress between Paris to Berlin, between Athens and Rome.
In 1988, he moved inland from Salobrena to Sevilla, where during the next four years he completed the final draft of God's Peculiar Care and wrote his fourth book Love Is Starving For Itself. From his base in Sevilla, Patrick Roscoe made increasingly frequent journeys to the Western Sahara of North Africa, each time venturing deeper into the desert, farther across the dunes.
In 1991, a decade after his journey began, the magic door for which he had been searching during those years suddenly appeared. Miraculously, this door stood open; miraculously, Patrick Roscoe was invited into the wondrous room beyond. Dazzled by the light emitting from inside, blinded by its power and beauty, he committed an error: instead of entering the magic door, he stepped through a door adjacent to it. Instead of entering the strong, warm and lasting light which he had travelled back and forth across the world to find, and to which each word of each of his books had served to bring him nearer, he discovered himself to be in a place of unremitting darkness and unrelieved cold. Call this the laboratory of love. His entry into the laboratory would be documented in the final pages of Patrick Roscoe's fifth book The Lost Oasis.
In the following fifteen years, Patrick Roscoe has published just two further books: aside from his novel The Lost Oasis (1995), there has been only the story collection The Truth About Love (2001), which presents the results of his experiments within the laboratory.
Patrick Roscoe currently divides his time between Mexico, Spain and North Africa, while also maintaining a Canadian residence; on another level, he has entered his second decade within the laboratory of love, which is always anywhere and everywhere and nowhere, and in which he remains both scientist and specimen. His prize-winning short stories continue to be widely published and anthologized in Canada, the US and England; some have been adapted for film and radio. There are several completed but not yet published book-length manuscripts (novels and short story collections - see in progress). With the novel The Reincarnation of Linda Lopez, the cycle of work that began with his very first set beneath the western slopes has been brought to conclusion; with The Brale Chronicles, he has moved from exploring his experience through myth and symbol to exploring those of earlier generations of family. It has become increasingly clear that, despite its variety and breadth and range, all his fiction documents Patrick Roscoe's investigation into the truth about love. As years pass, he holds onto hope that one day he will write himself free.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.