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W.W. Norton
April 2015
On Sale: April 6, 2015
Featuring: Gideon Birdsall; Sophy Hedge
460 pages ISBN: 0393057135 EAN: 9780393057133 Kindle: B00L4HAXNM Hardcover / e-Book
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Historical
Set in nineteenth-century New England, this exquisite
novel tests a woman’s love against her husband’s utopian
quest. Sophy Hedge, the artistic daughter of the town's minister,
falls in love with Gideon Birdsall, a driven theology
student assisting her father with a Hebrew lexicon. Sophy is
drawn to Gideon's intellect, passion, and spiritual nature,
while Gideon glimpses in her a free soul unbound by
convention. Yet Gideon's restlessness after they wed worries
Sophy, and she finds his friendship with Leander Solloway,
the charismatic new schoolmaster, a cause for anxiety. As
the men immerse themselves in Gideon’s mystical theories,
Sophy translates her fears into secret paintings. When Sophy becomes pregnant, Gideon and Leander construct a
faux Eden in a greenhouse as part of a daring experiment to
discover the language of paradise—the tongue Adam spoke when
he named the creatures of the earth. Sophy must decide
whether to live and paint in the world her husband has made
or escape to save her child and herself. Addressing the timeless issues of faith, art, and the
elusive dream of perfection, Barbara Klein Moss has captured
the fragility of human longing.
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