Water, Stone, Heart

January 12, 2009
North (The Long Walk Home
) exploits the 2004 flood of Boscastle, England, in this saggy romantic novel of two damaged people who find each other amid tragedy. Andrew Stratton and Nicola Rhys-Jones are both divorced Americans who end up in the U.K. for different reasons. Andrew, a professor of architecture, is drawn by a longstanding idea he has about livable places that takes on new importance after his wife leaves him. In Cornwall, Andrew falls in love with the place, and with Nicola, an artist who has left an abusive marriage to a wealthy Englishman and is skittish around men. The two engage in a wary flirtation, both thinking it'll go nowhere, but then the freak storm hits, and the people Andrew has come to care about are imperiled. As Andrew works to save the village, he learns about the nature and longing of his own heart. Unfortunately, the narrative moves at a glacial pace, and the author's sentimental leanings can be hard to take. The love story has some great moments, but these aren't enough to overpower the flood of treacle and lethargic storytelling.