First published 2010
Milo lies in a rehabilitation hospital, his back destroyed by the Iraq War. Honor, a former dancer turned physical therapist, begins treating his injuries. When she touches his wounded spine, both experience strange visions from other times and places. The images disturb Honor and shake Milo deeply. As his therapy continues, the visions multiply and connect. They see Joe and Pearl in the 1930s, whose marriage fractures when Pearl's artistic cousin Vivian arrives. A woman photographer in the 1960s watches thieves steal her life's work. Another woman moves constantly between jobs and men after having a child too young. In seventeenth century Turkey, a eunuch and a sultan's concubine fall into forbidden love, preserving their passion in music. These scattered love stories from across centuries begin forming a pattern. The visions reveal how Honor and Milo's own connection emerged from America's romantic history. Through treating his physical wounds, Honor discovers their shared emotional inheritance.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Iraq, Turkey, United States
Period: 1930s, 1960s, 17th Century, 21st Century
237 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: war