Synopses & Reviews
A sensuous, heartbreaking novel about art, beauty, and the choices we make that define us for lifeIn 1968 a young man travels to Paris, where a series of unlikely events take him to a tiny village in Italy—and 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 boy's life and, ultimately, sets in motion each of these stories, which David Macfarlane masterfully shapes into a magnificent whole.
Oliver Hughson falls in love with wild, bohe-mian Anna over the course of one glorious summer in Italy. Bound by a sense of responsibility to his adoptive parents back home in Canada, however, he leaves her, an act he will regret for the rest of his life. Narrated by the daughter he never knew he had, The Figures of Beauty is a love story of mythic proportions. Through luck, fate, and great good fortune, Oliver found the one place and the one woman he should never have left. This is the story of his trying to find his way back.
Review
Praise for The Danger Tree: “About the best prose to ever come out of this country, for my money.” Alice Munro on < i=""> The Danger Tree <>
Review
“Macfarlane sculpts several disparate tales into a smooth, rock-solid whole. His ambitions are high, but in a language as rich as the fruits of the scenic landscapes in which he situates his characters and their stories, he pulls off a far grander narrative with skill and intrigue.” Leslie Ken Chu, < i=""> Vancouver Weekly <> on < i=""> The Figures of Beauty <>
Review
“A beautifully written, complex, and bittersweet story that spans continents and eras. Macfarlane teases his story to the surface as meticulously as his sculptors (Michelangelo, Brancusi) extracted their forms from marble - and always with a vivid sense of place, from a small Ontario community to the hill towns of Carrera.” Daphne Kalotay, author of < i=""> Russian Winter <> and < i=""> Sight Reading <> on < i=""> The Figures of Beauty <>
Review
“The Figures of Beauty is a rich, imaginative novel about art, life and beauty. Its epic in scale but intimate in tone, with Macfarlanes prose as crisp and pure as Carrara marble. One of the best novels Ive read all year.” Ross King, author of < i=""> Leonardo <> and < i=""> The Last Supper <> on < i=""> The Figures of Beauty <>
Review
“A beautifully contemplative first novel about fathers and sons, memory, and the spirituality of wilderness.” < i=""> Booklist <> on < i=""> Summer Gone <>
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“Macfarlane skillfully evokes an atmosphere at once somber and slightly ominous.” < i=""> Library Journal <> on < i=""> Summer Gone <>
Review
“Summer Gone is a homage to our most excruciating and beautiful memories. Within this novel is the marvellous height of summer, perfect and fleeting, a place and time we can never get enough of.” < i=""> The Globe and Mail <> on < i=""> Summer Gone <>
Review
“A meditation on the degree to which we mortals really lack much control over our lives…Sub-textually, Figures of Beauty is also an aesthetic treatise of the human impulse to make beauty, to create art. And Macfarlane tells this story in a deeply affecting way.” < i=""> Toronto Star <>
Review
“A complex, densely written and dreamlike narrative…. A moving tale of love, fate and regret.” < i=""> Wall Street Journal <>
Synopsis
Moving from Paris to Italy to North America, a sensuous, heartbreaking novel about art, beauty, star-crossed lovers, and the choices that define our lives, from the award-winning author of Summer Gone.
A young man arrives in Paris in 1968, where a series of unlikely events lead him to a tiny village in Italy--and to the 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 travels to Canada on an odyssey to find the father she never knew. A terrible accident in a marble quarry changes the course of a young boy's life and, ultimately, sets in motion each of these stories, which David Macfarlane masterfully chisels into a magnificent whole.
Oliver Hughson falls in love with wild, bohemian Anna over the course of one glorious summer in Italy. Bound by a sense of responsibility to his adoptive parents, he leaves her and returns home--an act he will regret for the rest of his life. Through luck or fate, Oliver had found the woman with whom he was meant to be. And now he must try to find his way back to her.
Narrated by the daughter Oliver never knew he had, The Figures of Beauty is a love story of mythic proportions that reminds us of the powerful bond that can connect two people indelibly across oceans and time.
About the Author
David Macfarlane's memoir, The Danger Tree, was originally published in the United States under the title Come from Away. Christopher Hitchens described it as "intense and beautiful." Simon Winchester called it "a true masterpiece." His novel Summer Gone was a finalist for Canada's most prestigious literary award, the Giller Prize. The Figures of Beauty is his third book. He lives in Toronto.