Chartreuse

Historically 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. . 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 fast-paced 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 our 21st century lives.