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The lives of a French wig maker, a young
American widow, and a cuban cigar maker intersect to startling
effect in this masterful, atmospheric novel
Tampa, Florida, 1898: a hazy frontier where the Old World
meets the New, where miracles of transformation are possible
and the soil is so fertile that dry sticks take root and flower.
Dominating the town is the new Tampa Bay Hotel, a fairy-tale
castle that in the wintertime is a magnet for the finest sorts
of people.
During the off-season, the city is quiet, but a few residents
remain. Among these is a most exotic creature by the name
of Monsieur Lucien Goulet III, wig maker to the wealthy and
glamorous-indeed to any resident of Tampa whose desire for
his transformations is keen enough to meet his price. As winter
nears its end, Goulet is entranced by a head of hair belonging
to the young widow Marion Unger. But this material, without
which he absolutely cannot form his greatest masterpiece,
is hard to come by, being still attached to its owner. Determined
to go forward with the project, Goulet drives his gifted night
scavenger-a teenage cigar maker who is a refugee from the
war in Cuba-to increasingly extreme efforts.
As the lives of these three unlikely accomplices become ever
more entwined, Goulet's true nature becomes disturbingly clear,
leading to an electrifying conclusion.
Catherine Chidgey is the author
of The Strength of the Sun (a New York Times Book
Review Notable Book) and In a Fishbone Church,
which was nominated for the Orange Prize. She lives in Auckland,
New Zealand.
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