founded on a sixteenth century alchemist's elixir of long life and the basis for the French liqueur, CHARTREUSE is a story of supernatural transformation of the elixir's ingredients on which a Pope's life rests of a young man's destiny and the chain of world events that lead to his final, wrenching choice.
The central character, Blaise, is summoned to Switzerland once he learns he has inherited a parchment containing the recipe for nothing less than the elixir of life.
He's directed to a distiller in the French countryside a Carthusian monk at La Grande Chartreuse for he alone knows how "to execute the formula to the greater glory of God and humanity.
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At the same time, someone wants the Pope dead and has infected him with a fatal disease, So the race is on: to save the Pope to see which woman will accompany Blaise during his travails his current lover, or a flame from his past to discover if the culprit can keep
the elixir from reaching the Vatican.
CHARTREUSE is fastpaced without being frantic, And yet, in the drawing power of the plot's twists and turns, so much more than a plot goes on: a romance, a thriller, a source book of homeopathy, miraculous events, a spiritual journey.
It's a search for a cure a search for a moral code a search for identity, With CHARTREUSE, Joseph Roccasalvo has written a novel about the sacred and the profane a contemporary symbol of ourst century lives, A native New Yorker, Joseph Roccasalvo followed his graduate degrees in Philosophy, English Literature, and Theology with a Harvard Ph, D. in Comparative Religion and a specialty in Buddhism, He has lived and taught in Boston, Bangkok and Chicago, For over ten years in New York City, he was a professor of religious studies at Fordham Universitys Bronx and Lincoln Center Campuses.
He was also visiting professor of Buddhism at Columbia University in New York City and Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland, Now engaged in graduate school mentoring, he is also a fiction writer, He has published five novels: Fire in a Windless Place, Chartreuse, Portrait of a Woman, The Devils Interval, and The Odor of Sanctity.
Two novellas, The Powers Tha A native New Yorker, Joseph Roccasalvo followed his graduate degrees in Philosophy, English Literature, and Theology with a Harvard Ph.
D. in Comparative Religion and a specialty in Buddhism, He has lived and taught in Boston, Bangkok and Chicago, For over ten years in New York City, he was a professor of religious studies at Fordham Universitys Bronx and Lincoln Center Campuses.
He was also visiting professor of Buddhism at Columbia University in New York City and Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland, Now engaged in graduate school mentoring, he is also a fiction writer, He has published five novels: Fire in a Windless Place, Chartreuse, Portrait of a Woman, The Devils Interval, and The Odor of Sanctity.
Two novellas, The Powers That Be and and Beyond the Pale appeared in print as Double Entendre, There followed three books of short stories: Outwards Signs, The Mansions of Limbo, and Triple Sec then a play, Waging Waugh, and a memoir, As It Were.
He has guided students in journalism and international studies at The New School for Social Research, and has contributed essays to the New School's newspaper in his online column, A Word to the Wise.
Island of the Assassin, a novel, is his latest work, It has been called "a thriller with a conscience" and "a page turner from the get go, " All of Joseph Roccasalvo's works are available through his website sitelink www, josephroccasalvo. com and through. com. sitelink.