The Well of Saint Nobody

Author: Jordan, Neil

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 1 August 2024 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (Apollo) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 272 pages
128 x 198 x 19 | 198g

He had met her three times and three times forgotten all about her...

William Barrow finds himself in lonely retirement in West Cork. Once an internationally renowned pianist, a terrible skin disease has attacked his hands and made it impossible for him to perform. All he can play, haltingly, is Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand.

Tara is a piano teacher with barely enough pupils to pay the month’s rent. In the local café, the elegant writing of a job advertisement catches her eye: ‘Wanted. Housekeeper.’She begins to work in William’s house, keeping to herself the knowledge that they have met three times before – encounters that have changed her life, to which he is oblivious. When William stumbles upon a well in the back garden, Tara finds herself longing for revenge. She spins tales of a mythical saint, of the healing powers of the water and of the moss that surrounds it. But as the moss begins to heal William’s troubled hands, the lines between legend and reality begin to blur, and past and present collide in unexpected ways.

Gripping and lyrical, The Well of Saint Nobody is a story of love, secrets and the elusive possibility of second chances.