Bought at the bookcrossing/transita day at Oxford town hall. So on to mnt TBR. This is a signed copy - which I would like to travel.

History repeats itself, so they say. Perhaps it has to because no-one listens?
Ellie, an artist in her middle age, needs to live her life in a new way after the death of her husband. Feeling fearful but doing it anyway, she enrolls on a garden course in Tuscany one spring. Here she begins relationships with fellow students Nerine - an eccentric character in her seventies - and the much younger Max. Through the teaching of Salvatore - the owner of an ancient palazzo - Ellie comes to find that the universal truths, expressed in the Renaissance painting Primavera and the philosophy of Marsilio Ficino, still hold a potent relevance.

I have never been to Italy, but the parts of this novel set in Italy took me there - I wanted to enrol on Salvatore's course myself. Ellie and Nerine are both strong female characters, who make descions about thier lives, are supportive to one another and have strong beliefs, I loved the relationship that developed with these two women of different generations. Salvatore who also has a strong Christian faith, is a strong, wise and moral man, and instantly the reader is introduced to him, you understand he is good man, unlike Max - who I disliked just as instantly. This is really well written novel, lyrical, and memorable. Both the reader and the novels characters are taught a great deal about the relationships, between art, faith, and gardening, with a little philosophy thrown in.

RELEASE NOTES:

Picked up yesterday at Hudson's

A very gentle book to read and follow someone's growth and transition.Art has so much to offer us and in it Ellie finds a new beginning.