Rich, imaginative. . . . One of the best novels Ive read all year.Ross King, author of Leonardo and the Last SupperA sensuous, heartbreaking novel about art, beauty, and the choices we make that define us for life.In 1968 a young man travels to Paris, where a series of unlikely events takes him to a tiny village in Italyand to the one great love of his life. A marble merchant meets a couple on their honeymoon, introducing them to the sensual beauty of Carrara. An Italian woman arrives in Canada to find the father she never knew. A terrible accident in a marble quarry changes the course of a young boys life and, ultimately, sets in motion each of these stories, which David Macfarlane masterfully shapes into a magnificent whole.A beautifully written, complex, and bittersweet story that spans continents and eras.Daphne Kalotay, author of Russian Winter and Sight Reading