Frozen Music

Star-crossed lovers Esther Fisher and Linus Stendal have never met, but they've known about each other since they were children. In this quirky, appealing romance by Swedish native Cobbold (Guppies for Tea), the two grow up in England and Sweden, respectively, hearing about each other via letters passed back and forth between Esther's mother and Linus's stepmother, who are old school friends. Linus, a dreamy child, chooses to be an architect, marries the wrong woman, has a son and is divorced; brainy, intense Esther becomes a socially conscious journalist and is convinced she'll never fall in love. Their lives are so different it seems impossible that they could ever meet, until Linus is awarded the assignment of his dreams, a commission to design an opera house in England. But the land chosen for the building is already occupied by an elderly sister and brother, and Esther, as investigative reporter, leads the tumultuous public battle against the project, just as she and Linus embark on a tentative, continuously thwarted private romance. A trip to Sweden and a host of subplots involving poisoning and attempted murder, wacky mothers, secret letters discovered and not-so-secret adulterous affairs exposed all add spice to an uncommonly rocky but compelling love story. Cobbold grants her tormented protagonists very few moments of bliss, but she leavens her tale with a healthy dose of ironic humor. This unusual romance makes the convincing argument that sometimes it is necessary to abandon the conventional rules of love to make room for the heart's unwieldy, essential demands. Agent, Jo Frank. (Nov.)