The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
Read The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted Online
Authors: Bridget Asher
“
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
held me spellbound from the first word to the last, when I put it aside with a sigh of both regret and deepest satisfaction.… I madly, madly, madly loved this book!”
—B
ARBARA
O’N
EAL
, author of
How to Bake a Perfect Life
“Unabashedly romantic … a real charmer about a Provençal house that casts spells over the lovelorn.” —
Kirkus Reviews
“
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
will have you canceling dinner plans, staying up all hours and flat-out ignoring your family, just so you can keep reading. Asher’s unflinching portrait of a grieving young widow is tempered by a powerful dose of humor and an unforgettable cast of characters. The result is
an absorbing, beautifully written tale about life, death, love, food, and the magic of new possibilities
.” —J. C
OURTNEY
S
ULLIVAN
, author of
Commencement
and
Maine
“Love and its sweet secrets bloom gloriously in
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted.…
A sumptuous exploration of how grief, love, and joy, when stirred just right, ferry us home to the people and places we most cherish. Asher’s novel brims with wisdom and laughter, teaching us anew that hope resides in unexpected places:
a charred box of beloved recipes, a troubled child’s earthy wisdom, an ailing house in need of an artful hand, a mother who listens to a silent mountain, and a kiss that unlocks the puzzle of what forever truly means.” —C
ONNIE
M
AY
F
OWLER
, author of
How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly
and
Before Women Had Wings
“I enjoyed
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
so much—it’s well written, beautifully characterized, extremely atmospheric, and at times very touching—
an enchanting and compelling tale
.” —I
SABEL
W
OLFF
, author of
A Vintage Affair
ALSO BY BRIDGET ASHER
My Husband’s Sweethearts
The Pretend Wife
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is totally coincidental.
A Bantam Books Trade Paperback Original
Copyright © 2011 by Bridget Asher
Reading group guide copyright © 2011 by Random House, Inc.
Excerpt from
The Pretend Wife
© 2009 by Bridget Asher
Excerpt from
My Husband’s Sweethearts
© 2008 by Bridget Asher
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
B
ANTAM
B
OOKS
and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. R
ANDOM
H
OUSE
R
EADER’S
C
IRCLE
and colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33872-7
www.randomhousereaderscircle.com
Cover design: Cara Petrus
Cover photograph: Simon McBride/Red Cover/Getty Images
v3.1
This novel is dedicated to the reader.
For this singular moment, it’s just the two of us.
ere is one way to say it: Grief is a love story told backward.
Or maybe that’s not it at all. Maybe I should be more scientific. Love and the loss of that love exist in equal measure. Hasn’t an equation like this been invented by a romantic physicist somewhere?
Or maybe I should put it this way: Imagine a snow globe. Imagine a tiny snow-struck house inside of it. Imagine there’s a woman inside of that tiny house sitting on the edge of her bed, shaking a snow globe, and within
that
snow globe, there is a tiny snow-struck house with a woman inside of it, and this one is standing in the kitchen, shaking another snow globe, and within
that
snow globe …
Every good love story has another love hiding within it.
ver since Henry’s death, I’d been losing things.
I lost keys, sunglasses, checkbooks. I lost a spatula and found it in the freezer, along with a bag of grated cheese.
I lost a note to Abbot’s third-grade teacher explaining how I’d lost his homework.
I lost the caps to toothpaste and jelly jars. I put these things away open-mouthed, lidless, airing. I lost hairbrushes and shoes—not just one of a pair, but both.