An Imaginative Experience

Book excerpt: From the beloved British novelist, “a love story that’s simply, grandly, satisfying” (Kirkus Reviews). While traveling home to London, divorcé Sylvester Wykes witnesses a most unusual event: A woman leaps off a locomotive to rescue a sheep in distress. The mystery woman disappears, but Wykes cannot get her out of his head—and is soon caught up in the kind of romance he never thought he’d have again. Ever since losing her husband and child in one catastrophic night, Julia Piper has been consumed by guilt and loneliness. Her neighbors find her a bit odd—and after her daring attempt to save a sheep, she must somewhat agree. But as she strives to piece herself back together while taking on a job tending house for an enigmatic man, she comes to realize that perhaps her chance at finding happiness is not yet out of reach. “Wesley’s dialogue still comes bouncing off the page” in this charming, cynically romantic novel about the emotions, frailties, and desires that drive us, and the search for that one person who can make us whole (Publishers Weekly). “A complex, multilayered, love story . . . vintage Wesley.” —Kirkus Reviews