For centuries, Carrara marble has been associated with opulence and beauty. Quarried from the mountains of northwest Italy, it is the raw material of the world's finest architecture and sculpture. "Michelangelo's mountains" are at the center of The Figures of Beauty, David Macfarlane's ambitious novel of fateful connections--and missed connections--across continents, classes and generations. It is primarily the story of Italian sculptor Anna Di Castello and Oliver Hughson, the adopted son of Canadian schoolteachers. Oliver, a young, Rilke-reading, straight-laced man from small-town Ontario, falls for Anna, an older Italian artist who smokes a spliff with her morning coffee, swears like a stone cutter and enjoys lusty mountainside sex. After four months of bliss, the cautious Oliver returns to Canada, leaving behind Anna--and, to his later surprise, a daughter.
Giller Prize finalist Macfarlane (Summer Gone) is interested in much more than a coming-of-age romance in Tuscany, however. Narrated by Oliver and Anna's child, The Figures of Beauty traces the history of Carrara marble and the dangers of its mining; the challenges faced by artists like Michelangelo who attempt to chisel delicate curves from the hard, white stone; the provincial limitations of rural Canada; and the basic human need to connect with family and community. Nonetheless, it is the brief romance that drives the narrative. As Oliver writes to his newfound daughter, "I only made one serious mistake in my life…it is up to all of us to know what we most love... youth is no excuse for turning away from it...we cannot always be reasonable." --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kansas.