Lea: A Novel

"Lea is a descent into that place where obsession and brilliance collide to produce the heights of creative expression in one moment … and self destruction in the next. This is the story of two gifted, grief-stricken people unable to save each other from the self-imprisonment of their talents. Lea’s father tells a man he meets in a cafe the story of his daughter’s rise to musical brilliance, and her descent into mental illness. Mercier’s books are populated with people who are obsessed and awkward; Lea is no exception. He brings to life the worlds of people who possess a single-minded focus on the perfection of an idea, a phrase, a game or a note. Like his previous novel Night Train to Lisbon, *Lea * is full of searing images that will stick in my mind long after the details of the plot and characters fade from memory."