About this eBook
Leo Millar is a young painter in Paris who seems to have it all—a beautiful French wife, a talented young son, a thriving career. After years spent as a lonely orphan, Leo basks in a sense of belonging, until one dreadful instant robs him of all that he cherishes.
Overcome by guilt and despair, he flees to a tiny, rugged island off the coast of Normandy. With its timeless customs and wild natural beauty, the island soon works its magic, and Leo encounters a brilliant but troubled musician who is fighting her own demons. But it is only when a strange, damaged child enters Leo’s life that he has a chance to move beyond his own losses and find, perhaps, a new definition of love and the restoration of hope.
This luminous novel transports us to a place of elemental beauty—of stone and salt, of light and shadow, of solitude and community. Here, old promises are kept alive in the heart and given new expression.
About the author
Lewis DeSoto was born in South Africa and moved to Canada as a teenager. His first novel, A Blade of Grass, was an international bestseller and an International Book of the Month selection. Longlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the novel was also a finalist for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. An artist as well as a writer, DeSoto authored a biography of the painter Emily Carr. He lives with his wife, the artist Gunilla Josephson, in Toronto and Normandy, France. Visit him online at www.lewisdesoto.com.