Winslow in Love

Richard Winslow is in a rut. His wife is leaving him, he drinks too much, his once-acclaimed poetry has sunken into obscurity, and he hasn't written anything worth reading for eighteen months. In truth, he hasn't even tried. The offer of a visiting professorship at a small college in Montana hardly seems like the best way to renew his artistic glory, but with his options and his bank account rapidly dwindling, Winslow makes the move. Once there, he rediscovers the forgotten pleasures of fly-fishing and meets a girl in worse shape than he is. Erica is a painfully thin student with a dragon tattooed on her neck. She is also sharp, confrontational, and fiercely intelligent. Their relationship, formed over paper cups of Johnnie Walker in Winslow's office, escalates when they impulsively take off on a road trip in Winslow's prized possession, a classic Lincoln Town Car. Traveling through Utah and Arizona, they forge a bond neither anticipated. Winslow, haunted by thoughts of death, begins to embrace the promise of love and life. From stunning descriptions of fly-fishing in cold Montana streams to pitch-perfect renditions of intimate conversations, "Winslow in Love is a work of extraordinary beauty. Canty has long been recognized as a writer of finely nuanced prose who sees our time with breathtaking clarity. Of his last novel, "Newsweek wrote: "Canty's forte is to examine human relationships with the precision of Sue Miller or Louise Erdrich within the context of a fast-moving narrative. Once he's got you in his thrall, you're as helpless as his lovers in the hands of fate."