From the book

Read an excerpt

Start where the book starts: a preface written in September, and a crack in the ice in a Chicago January.

The idea for this book came to me on September 3. I wrote the date down because I knew, somehow, it mattered — the way September always does in my life. As in nature, by September things finally come to fruition: after the fresh beginnings of spring and the wild rush of summer, autumn arrives — calmer, richer, filled with deep colors and flavors…

Keep reading — the full preface and all of Chapter 1

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Want to know what happens after the crack?

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58 etchings, one for every turn of the story

Every part of the book opens with a full-page black-and-white illustration in the style of 19th-century copperplate etchings. Each began as a colour image and was translated into fine etched lines.

Full-page copperplate-style etching opening a part of the novel

Fine-line etching illustration from Chapter 11

Fine-line etching illustration from Chapter 38

Fine-line etching illustration from Chapter 51

From colour image to finished etching

The original colour illustration for Chapter 26 — The original colour image

The same illustration translated into a fine-line etching — Translated into an etching

58 illustrations, one happy ending.