The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a restless young man with dreams of escaping Aberdeen. Abandoning his childhood sweetheart, he takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai and helps overthrow the Shogun - a rapid rise from lowly shipping clerk to millionaire industrialist. Yet behind Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed - would form a tragedy so dramatic as to be immortalized in the story of Madame Butterfly. The Pure Land relives in fiction the arc of Glover's true-life rise and fall, and forges a 100-year saga that culminates in the annihilation of Nagasaki in 1945.

[英]艾伦•思彭斯 (Alan Spence) 著名的诗人、剧作家、小说家，同时也是伯丁大学文学创作系的教授，一年一度的伦敦文字节 （London Word Festival） 的艺术总监。曾荣获格兰菲迪苏格兰精神奖（Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award）、麦卡蓝短篇小说奖（Macallan Short Story Prize）以及麦威题苏格兰年度作家奖（McVitie’s Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year）等大奖。