A heart full of sorrow beats at the center of this brooding novel, Burt's third (following The Hole
and Sophie
), about English painter Alex Carlisle, who is struggling to come to terms with the tragic fallout of a childhood adventure. The bulk of the novel takes place during the summer when dreamy, "slow" Alex is eight and living with his expatriate family in Altesa, Italy. He; his best friend, Jamie; and Jamie's headstrong cousin, Anna, find a man with a gunshot wound to his leg and nurse him back to health, though they gradually come to suspect that he's a dangerous terrorist. Eventually, the three go their separate ways—Jamie to an English boarding school, followed later by Alex, and Anna back to her family's home in northern Italy. In school, Alex turns to art, painting eerie pictures of the fateful summer, and Jamie slowly lets Alex in on his new, semisecret life as a jazz saxophonist, though his feelings for his friend are complicated and painful. It is Anna, however, who is most altered by their contact with the wounded man, and it's she who propels the novel toward its tragic conclusion. A heavy cloud of portentousness hangs over Burt's story, but despite its self-consciousness, this is an intriguing, involving read. Agent, Kathleen Anderson. (Oct. 26)
