Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like love.

After a horrific car accident a man lies in hospital with severe burns to almost all of his body. He endures the pain, the hideous disfigurement and the excruciating treatments to remove the dead and rotting skin only in the hope of becoming well enough to end his life.

Then Marianne Engel, sculptor of gargoyles, appears. She unravels a wild, impossible tale of a life they had together, a tale that begins with her nursing him when he was burned once before, seven hundred years ago in Germany. Weaving stories within her story—fables of love in Japan, Iceland, Italy and England—Marianne slowly brings beauty and love into his life.

The Gargoyle is a brilliant love story, sweeping across centuries and continents. When it ends you’ll want to read it again.