Provence May 1889 The hospital of Saint-Paul-de Mausole is home to the mentally ill An old monastery it sits at the foot of Les Alpilles mountains amongst wheat fields herbs & olive groves For years the fragile have come here & lived quietly found rest behind the shutters & high sun-baked walls Tales of the new arrival
- his savagery his paintings his copper-red hair
- are quick to find the warden's wife From her small white cottage Jeanne Trabuc watches him
- how he sets his easel amongst the trees the irises & the fields of wheat & paints in the heat of the day Jeanne knows the rules; she knows not to approach the patients at Saint-Paul But this man
- paint-smelling dirty troubled & intense
- is she thinks worth talking to So ignoring her husband's wishes the dangers & despite the word mad Jeanne climbs over the hospital wall She will find that the painter will change all their lives Let Me Tell You About A Man I Knew is a beautiful novel about the repercussions of longing of loneliness & of passion for life But it's also about love
- & how it alters over time