Man with the Glass Heart

Not since the Little Prince fell in love with arose has a book captured the magic of a world where love longs for what itcannot have, recovers what it has lost, and the unimaginable flutters withluminescent wings out of crystal caves.Panache, an exuberant road gypsy, is onher way to the mountains. Benjamin Pencil, the man with the glass heart, has nouse for mountains. But their paths cross, their lives intertwine, and Benjaminfollows her up, up, up to where hills are smothered in poppies and a man canreach out and write his name in the sky. As they travel, they first encounterthe beautiful but predatory Woman with the Breeding, a collector of hearts whotries to add Benjamin's exquisite heart to her pitiable hoard. Next they meetthe malicious Laughing Man, who lives only to create fear and kill dreams. Finally, and unpredictably, they meet Panache's iconoclastic, unreliable, and utterly irresistiblefather. Papa, who plays his saxophone with the same wild abandon with which he liveshis life, cautions Panache that if the mountains are in a man, he will gothere-and that mountains are in the man with the glass heart.It is in thosemountains that they meet the melodious laughing bird. Melody, with herirresistible song and aquamarine eyes, lures Benjamin to an Arabian Nightsworld where hypnotizing creatures dance and sing late into the night. At whatperil does Benjamin Pencil follow the melodious laughing bird? To what end? Canreal hearts be broken? Is a shattered heart the end of all love, or can it be anew beginning?