In 1902 twentysixyearold Rainer Maria Rilke arrives in Paris to write astudy of the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin having left his wife and newborndaughter at ho... » 

In 1902 twentysixyearold Rainer Maria Rilke arrives in Paris to write astudy of the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin having left his wife and newborndaughter at home in the rural north of Germany. The bustling metropolisoverwhelms the young poet and the squalor of the Latin Quarter where heresides touches off a deep personal crisis. Not since Rilkes disastrouschildhood has his world seemed so menacing and strange. Sorely disquieted bypoverty loneliness quailing health and fleets of dark memories Rilke findshimself caught up in a powerful reckoning with his unfinished childhood and thetangled relationships that came from ithis wife and daughter clearly included.Spanning Western Europe from 1875 to 1917 Lost Son brings a broodingatmosphere and human complexity to an intimate imaginative portrait of one ofthe most sensitive artists of his time. Rilkes odd childhood and difficultearly life may have created the uncompromising determination that infuses hisart. But was the moral cost too great? In this gorgeous new novel M. AllenCunningham brings alive the intellectual and artistic movements that shaped the20th century and the personalities that made this history their ownfrom Rilkehimself to the great master Rodin to the fascinating Lou Salome mistress orconfidant to Rilke Freud and Nietzsche. The result is an exploration of theforever imperfect loyalties we face in life and the seemingly immeasurabledistances that can separate life and art. «