Tulip

Alice L. Lumbard’s Tulip weaves a dark narrative set against the backdrop of Central Asia in the 1880s. The story begins with a botanist who encounters a rare tulip flower within a shaman’s garden. This encounter involves a transaction where the botanist must consume a bulb and engage in intimacy with the shaman, an act that triggers supernatural consequences. After transporting the valuable bulbs to Holland, the botanist discovers they have vanished. He suspects a poor, crippled dockworker of theft and pursues him relentlessly. The pursuit ends when the botanist disappears without a trace. The narrative shifts focus to the dockworker’s home life. He has brought the cursed bulbs and a prayer wheel to his fun-loving wife and their teenage daughter. When the botanist fails to return, his son hires a local constable to investigate the disappearance. The constable’s inquiry leads him to the dockworker’s family, where he witnesses the full unleashing of the curse. The plot brings seven distinct characters together in a series of intimate and heart-wrenching collisions. Lumbard draws on gothic traditions and supernatural fiction to explore themes of greed, consequence, and familial bonds under extreme duress. This book suits readers who enjoy atmospheric horror with roots in historical settings and complex character dynamics. It may not appeal to those seeking fast-paced action or lighthearted plots.