Wow! I loved it - this should be made into a film, although obviously with a slight change of title.
The book starts in the 1920's with Tom and Alice meeting several years after they met as children. It then jumps to the 1980's to Kate, an aspiring photographer and daughter of a famous prima ballerina. Kate's Mum, Julie Darling, was adopted by a lady named Evie and it is Evie who gives Kate a letter claiming to be from Julie's biological mother, Celia. The letter also contains a drawing...
It is this drawing that sends Kate to Thomas Stafford, a famous painter, who now lives in Corsica. The descriptions of Corsica are so vivid, I could almost feel the sun on my face and hear the gentle lapping of the waves against the shore. Thomas, through flashbacks, talks to Kate about his history with Alice which leads her on to a meeting with her biological Grandmother, Celia, in New York.
The book swaps effortlessly between the past and the present, describing a love story between Tom and Alice and even giving Kate a love story of her own as she searches for her Grandmother. It is set in London, Paris, New York and Corsica, each one so descriptive that you feel like you are there, and spanning the period from the 1920's to the present day.