This is a Booker-longlisted novel of art, absence, loss & passion, from Britain`s most exciting contemporary writer. Moving between Italy & Engl&, the lives of four people intertwine across half a century: a dying painter considers the sacrifices & losses that have made him an enigma; a blind girl tries to make sense of a world she can no longer see; a landscape artist finds himself trapped in dangerous terrain, & a young woman embarks on a dangerous affair of darkness & sexual abandon.