{"product_id":"the-chapel-isbn-9781619027404","title":"The Chapel","description":"Recently widowed, unhappily stuck on a pricey whiplash tour of Italy, Elizabeth Berman comes face to face with the first documented painting of a teardrop in human history, and in the presence of that tearful mother, and the arresting company of the renowned and anonymous women painted by Giotto in the Arena Chapel, she wakes up to the possibility that she is not lost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMitchell left me everything, just as he promised.  \"Everything,\" he liked to say during his last month on the sofa, \"everything will be yours,\" as if it wasn't yet.  I was left with that and two adult children who could not tolerate my sitting in my home by myself—admittedly, rather too often in a capacious pink flannel nightgown and the green cardigan Mitchell was wearing on the afternoon he died.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat's how Elizabeth winds up on a tour better suited to her late–husband, a Dante scholar.  Mitchell masterminded the itinerary as a surprise for their thirty–fifth wedding anniversary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eItching to leave as soon as she arrives in Padua, Elizabeth's efforts to book a ticket home are stymied by her aggressively supportive children, the ministrations of an incomprehensibly Italian hotel staff, and the prospect of forfeiting the sizable\"Downing's latest work combines art, art history, and Italian allure into a cerebral romance channeling love, loss, and the complexities of emotional closure . . . Line drawings, photographs, blueprints, and some exceptionally witty prose and banter complement this affecting story . . . vividly entertaining.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Clever, acerbic Liz is both terse and obliquely flirtatious with the many men she meets who tend, surprisingly, to be voluble, kindly and sometimes sexy . . . playful and erudite \"\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Downing's rich descriptions of the chapel in Padua and fastidious art lectures are reminiscent of the work of Dan Brown, but the mysteries here are mostly of the heart. This story of life after loss delivers equal measures of history and hope.\"—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Chapel\u003c\/i\u003e is a rich and rewarding novel, by turns comic, thoughtful, nostalgic, and exuberant. I only put it down to browse airfares to Italy.\"  —Valerie Martin, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eItalian Hours and Property\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's moving, funny, and memorable: a tale of the baggage we all travel with, a portrait of grief and regeneration, and a bittersweet love story in which the beloved is a 700–year–old work of art.\" —Joan Wickersham, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe News from Spain\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Suicide Index\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There are art lessons, history lessons, and life lessons here, and the amazing and original thing is how all the entanglements sustain the possibility of romance. Downing gives us a witty female narrator with the smarts to make us trust her story.  It's bumper cars with biscotti and Prosecco.\"—Dennis McFarland, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eNostalgia\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Music Room\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"At last, a love story for adults – wrapped in a sophisticated mystery about art, religion and the fragility of the human heart.\"— Elizabeth Benedict, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAlmost\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Practice of Deceit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Downing\u003c\/b\u003e's novels include the national bestseller \u003ci\u003ePerfect Agreement\u003c\/i\u003e, named one of the 10 Best Books of the year by Amazon and \u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBreakfast with Scot\u003c\/i\u003e, a comedy about two gay men who inadvertently become parents. An American Library Association honor book, \u003ci\u003eBreakfast with Scot\u003c\/i\u003e was adapted as a movie that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. His nonfiction includes \u003ci\u003eShoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center\u003c\/i\u003e, hailed by the \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e as a \"dramatic and insightful\" narrative history of the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia, and by the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e as \"a highly readable book.\" His essays and reviews appear in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, and other periodicals. Michael teaches creative writing at Tufts University. He and his partner have lived together in Cambridge for more than 25 years.","brand":"Counterpoint","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304595607781,"sku":"NP9781619027404","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781619027404.jpg?v=1767738656","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-chapel-isbn-9781619027404","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}