Braving the mysteries of the heart's desire, Maureen Howard renders the heady madness of a first kiss while plumbing history, art, genetics, and astronomy to explore the inevitable morning-after question: why do two people fall in love?

The exhilarating flights and emotional depth of Howard's storytelling balance the fates of two young lovers in New York: Artie, a bastard, perhaps "begot in the mud of Woodstock," now a boyish computer wizard; and Louise, a hot new painter out of the Midwest, seriously committed to her art. Their romance, seemingly shattered on the eve of the millenium, is played out against the tale of two old lovers lost to each other for a half century. These intertwined lives gather history and time itself into a narrative of radiant intelligence and delicious wit, where truth surfaces -- as it will -- both to wound and to heal. Woven into the captivating stories of these young and old lovers are glimpses of the New York art scene and the uneasy cohabitation of art and technology. In seamless entries on the exploits of formative geniuses, from Ben Franklin to Robert Oppenheimer, the novel also brings the desire for progress into perspective with the limited dreams of private life.

Brimming with the exuberance of Salman Rushdie and the moral purpose of Don DeLillo, A Lover's Almanac starts a new cycle of novels from prize-winning Maureen Howard. One of America's finest writers, she here gives us an enormously entertaining love story and a gorgeous novel of ideas, transforming, as only she can, the dear Old Farmer's Almanac into a bright book of life.

About the Author
Maureen Howard's six novels and one memoir include Grace Abounding, Expensive Habits, and Natural History, all of which were nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She recently received the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in New York City.

Comments
"Maureen Howard is a wise woman who creates superior prose that is endlessly rich and vital, and fully realized characters who are worth our time. A Lover's Almanac is a cascade of narrative intelligence with a millenial sense of history; a love story of consequence that gives pleasure." -- William Kennedy, author of Ironweed

"Here is our future -- a future enriched by history, romance, memory, technology, and imagination. Only Maureen Howard could give us such a profound vision. She is a tough, keen, lyrical writer -- one of the finest writers of our time -- and A Lover's Almanac is a magnificent farewell to the century." -- Joanna Scott, author of The Closest Possible Union

"A Lover's Almanac is a remarkable, virtuoso performance, rich in the fruits of heart and mind and sensibility. The sheer creative horsepower is dazzling." -- Mary Gordon, author of The Company of Women

"Maureen Howard is a national treasure. Her daring intelligence gives A Lover's Almanac both historical density and deep emotional power." -- Richard Powers, author of The Gold Bug Variations