Annunciation

Ticknor & Fields, 1994. First Edition. Hardcover, Ex-. Very Good/Very Good. The prolific Plante offers a cerebral, geographically evocative tour throug h London, New York, Lucca, and Moscow, following the merging paths of two u nhappy seekers. Art historian Claire O'Connel, never healed from her husban d's suicide, now suffers desperately from the rape of her wise young daught er, Rachel, and throws herself into her search for a lost painting. Meanwhi le, dark-visioned editor Claude Ricard, haunted by his Russian heritage and his unfulfilling sexual relationship, watches the deaths of the people he needs. Through their mutual new friend, the genial, failing Maurice Kuragin , Claire and Claude intertwine their stories in a moody Moscow denouement m arked by sadness and strangeness but also by the possibility of redemption.