A Dark and Stormy Night

To that which we give the name of Love, be it of the flesh or of God, is it ever less than divine?In a space of mere hours, a life and faith in their entirety are to be re-lived by Simon Chance.One-time missionary and bishop, Chance had withdrawn in mid-life to research - and teach - his enduring mentor Dante, creator of The Divine Comedy.He is recently widowed, after the prolonged descent into dementia of his devoted wife Marigold, violinist and composer. To recuperate, he is invited by a life-long confidante, Clare, to her son's villa in the hills behind St Tropez in southern France, to join a house party of old friends from their university days, each now reaping the rewards of their worldly careers.The reunion coincides with the collapse of global banking confidence - and the playing-out of Clare's own loss of love.Such is one weave of this narrative. On a walk in the forest of the Massif des Maures surrounding the remote villa, in search of a church abandoned centuries ago, Chance