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The Hummingbird Saint
- Author: Hector Macdonald
- Category: Fiction
- Publisher: Penguin(UK)/Ballantine(US)
- Pub date: 8 May 2004
- Length: 544 pages
About The Hummingbird Saint
From the author of the internationally acclaimed THE MIND GAME comes THE HUMMINGBIRD SAINT. Benjamin Sword Hoppner has made his money in questionable ways. Now living in a remote village in the cloud forests of Central America, he is attempting to model ‘perfect society’. His obsession is virtue, and his life’s work a moral code that he hopes the world will eventually adopt.
Hoppner is also giving away his millions – to anyone who can claim to live a morally good life. If they can prove it to Hoppner’s satisfaction they will get a vast grant for whatever good work they should choose to undertake. It looks like a plum offer by a naive fool: a temptation too great to resist.
But beneath the virtuous veneer, a disturbing and sinister programme is beginning to develop.
Three opportunists discover that getting their hands on a slice of Hoppner’s fortune will be much harder than they thought. By the time they understand what is really going on, they are cut off from the outside world and no one can help them but themselves.
About the Author
Hector Macdonald was brought up in the wilds of East Africa and forced to adapt to European life when he was sent to school in England. Developing a strong interest in biology he pursued the subject to a first-class degree with Richard Dawkins at Oxford University. Hector’s first career was in business, with three years as a strategy consultant followed by an MBA at INSEAD. He wrote two novels whilst in his mid-twenties: THE MIND GAME, which sold into 23 languages and garnered rave reviews when published by Penguin UK in 2000; and then in 2003, THE HUMMINGBIRD SAINT, rights to which again sold widely. Hector began the research for THE STORM PROPHET, his latest novel, back in December 2002, when he lived in Sydney, discovered Pittwater and watched the Sydney to Hobart race from afar. He lives and works in London as a freelance management consultant.