Emma Darwin, Mathematics of Love

Mathematics of Love

Emma Darwin

Morrow, January 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 0061140260

Having lost his leg during the Napoleonic War, British military officer Stephen Fairhurst also learns several years later the other cost, as the widow he is to marry, Hetty Greenshaw, faints at the sight and lack of his leg. She begs off their engagement. However, her unmarried sister photographer enthusiast Lucy Durward begins a correspondence with Stephen after he returned to his home Kersey Hall. He writes to her informing her that he found a "perfect" love on the Peninsular, but his Catalina was sent to an orphanage by her parents to become a nun.

In 1976, with her mother running off to Spain with her lover, sixteen year old Anna Ware arrives at Kersey Hall to stay with her uncle, who for the most part neglects her. His neighbors, photographers Eva and Theo, are kind to the despondent teen, but Anna remains unhappy. She begins to slowly climb out of her depression when she receives and reads the letters between Stephen and Lucy.

Though too many players get stage time, this is a fascinating character study, especially when the storyline focuses on the respective angst of Stephen, Lucy and Anna. The links between 1819 and 1976 are cleverly designed so that Anna finds solace with photography and the letters, and learns what it truly means to be loved. Though the secondary cast make too many appearances that intrude, fans will enjoy going back and forth (and occasionally into 2006), as Emma Darwin provides a warm drama that equates love in two generations as being the same mathematical formula.