An Australian painter in Paris. A young Tunisian waiter named Sabiha. When John meets her in a café, he's captivated — not just by desire, but by something stranger, more haunting. She reminds him of someone lost, someone he painted years ago. Alex Miller builds this love story slowly, layering memory over longing, art over obsession. It's tender and unsettling in equal measure, circling questions about whether we ever truly see the people we love, or just projections of who we need them to be. Miller won the Miles Franklin Award twice, and this novel shows why — his prose is patient, precise, emotionally intelligent. For readers who want romance with weight, who like their love stories threaded through with mortality and the ghosts we carry.
