Echoes of the Dance: A Novel

by Marcia Willett

Overview

In the mellow stone house of his childhood, Roly Carradine has found refuge in the stream running past the garden where a heron makes his nest. A broken marriage and a terrible burden of guilt made Roly remove himself from his busy London life; here in Cornwall he welcomes Kate, who also seeks refuge from the grief of losing her husband, and young Daisy Quin, a dancer recovering from a back injury.

Roly's son Nat, a garden designer with his own secret, lives not far away, and is plagued by the unsympathetic visits of his mother Monica, Roly's ex-wife. Daisy, her burgeoning talent frustrated by her back problems, has been taken in by Mim, Roly's sister and a brilliant ballerina until an accident forced her into early retirement. Living in Bath, Daisy thinks she has found love with the attractive schoolmaster in the nearby flat---but her dreams prove to be false ones.

Treating Marcia Willett's ardent fans to a return visit with some of her most endearing characters from previous books, Echoes of the Dance is a gem of a story to be savored.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466836075
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/17/2009
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	525 KB

About the Author

Born in Somerset, in the west country of England, Marcia Willett was the youngest of five girls. Her family was unconventional and musical, but Marcia chose to train as a ballet dancer. Unfortunately her body did not develop with the classical proportions demanded by the Royal Ballet, so she studied to be a ballet teacher. Her first husband was a naval officer in the submarine service, with whom she had a son, Charles, now married and a clergyman. Her second husband, Rodney, himself a writer and broadcaster, encouraged Marcia to write novels. Echoes of the Dance is her seventh book to be published in the United States by Thomas Dunne Books; the other six, A Week in Winter, A Summer in the Country, The Children's Hour, The Birdcage, First Friends, and A Friend of the Family, are available wherever books are sold.

Born in Somerset, in the west country of England, on the day the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Marcia Willett was the youngest of five girls. Her family was unconventional and musical, but Marcia chose to train as a ballet dancer. Unfortunately her body did not develop with the classical proportions demanded by the Royal Ballet, so she studied to be a ballet teacher. Her first husband was a naval officer in the submarine service, with whom she had a son, Charles, now married and training to be a clergyman. Her second husband, Rodney, himself a writer and broadcaster, encouraged Marcia to write novels. She has published several novels in England; A Week in Winter is the first to be published in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

For her latest warmhearted take on love, change and relationships, Willett brings back Kate Webster (First Friends; A Friend of the Family), now a newly widowed grandmother living in Cornwall not far from Roly Carradine, a retired London photographer. While trying to persuade grieving Kate to adopt his newest stray dog, Floss, Roly agrees to take in a stray person, Daisy Quin, who, like Roly's sister, Mim, years before, has just suffered an accident that threatens to end her dancing career. Mim became a successful and beloved dancing instructor and wants to help Daisy follow her example, but Daisy is not ready to face that she may never dance again, or that the man she's in love with is not all he seems. Likewise, Roly's manipulative ex-wife, Monica, still pines for him; Roly retains a guilty secret; and Roly and Monica ignore the fact that their son, Nat, has secrets of his own. Chez Willett, friends help friends when they get "wumbled" (worried and jumbled) while courtship and marriage just wumble things up. Willett gets a bit wumbled herself, overexplaining the psychology of her characters and avoiding a happily-ever-after ending by substituting stagy sentimentality. Appealing, durable, human characters like Kate, Roly, Mim and Daisy deserve better. (Apr.)

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