โA stunning, spellbinding, poetic triumph." โToronto Star
From Giller-shortlisted author Kathleen Winter (author of the bestseller Annabel): A stunning novel reimagining the lost years of misunderstood Romantic Era genius Dorothy Wordsworth.
When young James Dixon, a local jack-of-all-trades recently returned from the Battle of Waterloo, meets Dorothy Wordsworth, he quickly realizes heโs never met another woman anything like her. In her early thirties, Dorothy has already lived a wildly unconventional life. And as her famous brother William Wordsworthโs confidante and creative collaboratorโconsidered by some in their circle to be the secret to his success as a poetโshe has carved a seemingly idyllic existence for herself, alongside William and his wife, in Englandโs Lake District.
One day, Dixon is approached by William to do some handiwork around the Wordsworth estate. Soon he takes on more and more choresโand quickly understands that his real, unspoken responsibility is to keep an eye on Dorothy, who is growing frail and melancholic. The unlikely pair of misfits form a sympathetic bond despite the troubling chasm in social class between them, and soon Dixon is the quiet witness to everyday life in Dorothyโs family and glittering social circle, which includes literary legends Samuel Coleridge, Thomas de Quincy, William Blake, and Charles and Mary Lamb.
Through the fictional James Dixonโa gentle but troubled soul, more attuned to the wonders of the garden he faithfully tends than to vexing worldly mattersโwe step inside the Wordsworth family, witnessing their dramatic emotional and artistic struggles, hidden traumas, private betrayals and triumphs. At the same time, Winter slowly weaves a darker, complex โundersongโ through the novel, one as earthy and elemental as flower and tree, gradually revealing the pattern of Dorothy's rich, hidden lifeโthat of a woman determined, against all odds, to exist on her own terms. But the unsettling effects of Dorothyโs tragically repressed brilliance take their toll, and when at last her true voice sings out, it is so searing and bright that Dixon must make an impossible choice.