Bitter and grief-stricken after the loss of his wife and daughter, a man loses his faith in God and becomes homeless, until he encounters a seven-year-old leukemia patient determined to reach out to him

Mark Helprin's powerful, rapturous new novel is set in a present-day Paris caught between violent unrest and its well-known, inescapable glories. Seventy-four-year-old Jules Lacour-a maître at Paris-Sorbonne, cellist, widower, veteran of the war in Algeria, and child of the Holocaust-must find a balance between his strong obligations to the past and the attractions and beauties of life and love in the present. In the midst of what should be an effulgent...

"My Brilliant Life interweaves the past and present of a tight-knit family, finding joy and happiness in even the most difficult times. Areum lives life to its fullest, vicariously through the stories of his parents, conversations with Little Grandpa Jang-his sixty-year-old neighbor and best friend-and through the books he reads to visit the places he would otherwise never see. For several months, Areum has been working on a manuscript, piecing together...