Fools' Gold.

New York, NY Alfred A. Knopf: Borzoi Books, 1988. Hardcover First Edition, so stated. First Edition, so stated. Near Fine in Very Near Fine DJ: Book shows only very minor indications of us: two tiny dots of stain at the top edge and the slightest shelf rubbing at the bottom edge of the boards, which also show three superficial dents; the binding remains square and secure; text clean. The DJ shows barely discernible sunning to the background field of the backstrip; the price is unclipped. No longer pristine, but remains virtually 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 291pp. Hardback with DJ. Set in Alaska in the late 19th century, this novel is the story of a diverse group of people - Eskimos, Irish, Japanese and North American - brought together by the gold rush and strangely influenced by the alien landscape in which they find themselves. Richard Wiley has also written "Soldiers in Hiding", the recipient of the Pen/Faulkener Prize. Wiley's second novel is a subdued, reflective portrait of the adventurers and fortune-seekers who journeyed to the barely settled town of Nome, Alaska, in 1899, hoping to ride the crest of a gold rush. What many found instead was a harsh Arctic climate that offered little in the way of sustenance, let alone wealth. Coming from worlds as distant and different as America, Ireland and Japan, the explorers had to learn to trust one another's cultural rituals and those of the indigenous Eskimo population. The author interweaves several stories as they unfold over the course of a year. Some of them are straight and vivid: an old Japanese man keeps himself company through the long freeze by recounting the entire history of his country; a young woman opens the town's first bathhouse, later using it as a political base; a preacher holds his flock by creating Bible stories with such characters as Andrew the Suicidal.