AustLit

'Two young lovers, Catherine and Jonathan, have trespassed into the rose garden of Burnt Norton, an abandoned gracious home in the English countryside. Hearing people coming, they hide, and witness the celebrated poet TS ('Tom') Eliot and his close friend Emily Hale enter the rose garden and bury a small tobacco tin together.

'Tom and Emily knew each other in America in their youth; now middle-aged, they have come together again. But Tom is married, and his wife has no intention of letting him go. What is it that binds Tom and Emily together? What happens when the muse steps out of the shadows?

'In the enclosed world of an English village one autumn, their story becomes entwined with that of Catherine and Jonathan, who are young, certain in their newfound love, and each full of promise.' (Publisher's blurb)