R J Hughes Release Date: January 2008 Format: Hardback Pages: 304 ISBN: 9780786715886 ISBN-10: 078671588X
In "Late and Soon", a host of characters confront their confusions in love. Claire, an art specialist at Sotheby's, lives in a world of glamour and achievement - but after attending an art opening, where she runs into the young man her husband had left her for five years earlier, she realizes that her broken heart has never truly healed. Claire begins to question herself, her past and her future, as does the younger man, Toby. For it turns out that Peter, her ex-husband, has left him, too. So begins a story spinning in the rarified but fast-paced whirl of art auctions in New York City. "Late and Soon" chronicles Claire's emotional course, as she puts together a sale of paintings that could make her career. She is captivated by one painting in particular that speaks to her, a James Tissot work titled "The Widow," and is taken under wing by the painting's owner, a well-to-do society matron of the old school, who loves the painting too, and who's parting with it for reasons that Claire finds poignant - especially regarding her own. Meanwhile, the possibility of romance does indeed loom.
For as Claire puts together her auction she not only contemplates her life and the art she sells, she must decide whether or not to begin a relationship with Frank, her ex-husband's brother, who has come to New York in pursuit of her, so many years later.
