Vendor
	Fritz Agency Christian Dittus
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction & Related items

THE LANGUAGE OF PARADISE

Barbara Klein Moss

An exquisite novel that tests a woman's love against her husband's utopian quest, THE LANGUAGE OF PARADISE is set in 19th-century New England.

Sophy Hedge, the artistic daughter of the town's minister, falls in love with Gideon Birdsall, a troubled theology student studying with her father. Sophy is drawn to his intellect, passion, and spiritual nature, while Gideon glimpses in her a free soul unbound by convention. Yet Gideon's restlessness after they wed worries her, and she finds his friendship with Leander Solloway, the charismatic new schoolmaster, a cause for anxiety. When Sophy becomes pregnant, Gideon and Leander construct a faux Eden in a greenhouse as part of a daring experiment to discover the language of paradise, the tongue Adam spoke when he named the creatures of the earth. Sophy must decide whether to live and paint in the world her husband has made or leave to save her child and herself.

Available products
Book Published 2015-04-01 by Norton

Comments

Compelling, powerful, lit by art and language, this novel of ideas embodies in the struggles of a passionate family a great intellectual and spiritual conflict. And what a family this is! Moss's brilliantly realized characters will stay with me for a long time. - Andrea Barrett

I am full of admiration for the way in which The Language of Paradise brings to life the struggles of faith and family. An utterly absorbing novel. - Margot Livesey

The novel's world never collapses under the weight of the substantial research that informs it; it is vibrant and, especially in the second half, engrossing. Throughout, Moss's language is precise and controlled, effectively describing the inner lives of Gideon and, in particular, Sophy, whose initial childlike innocence makes way for something much stronger and harder earned.

...a linguistic tour de force whose deft exploration of language, intellect, family, love, nature, and art will delight discerning readers everywhere, especially fans of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James. (starred review)