Product Description

It's Burgundy, 1808. One night Sobran Jodeau, a young vintner, meets an angel in his vineyard: a physically gorgeous creature with huge wings that smell of snow, a sense of humour and an inquiring mind. They meet again every year on the midsummer anniversary of the date. Village life goes on, meanwhile, with its affairs and mysteries, marriages and murders, and the vintages keep improving - though the horror of the Napoleonic wars and into the middle of the century, as science marches on, viticulture changes, and gliders fly like angels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52684 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Elizabeth Knox's fifth book, her first to be published in the UK, plays out its huge themes in a small Burgundian village at the time of Napoleon. A novel of forbidden love, wine and immortality, it yields up its secrets--beautiful, tragic and horrifying--one by one, so they're as unexpected as the angel Sobran Jodeau, the young vintner, encounters in his vineyard one night in 1808. Xas is breathtakingly beautiful, has huge expressive white wings, leather trousers and smells softly of snow. He is a keen gardener, and also profoundly curious about mortals, how they feel, how they live, how they make their choices. They talk, and Xas persuades Jodeau to meet him--same time, same place--every year.

Jodeau marries, fathers children, and continues--bar a couple of years when he's off fighting, whoring and trying to keep his best friend alive on the Russian front--to meet with Xas. Their friendship deepens. Jodeau's wine improves, and the joys and troubles of village life wash around him. But this strange relationship between man and angel is inherently unstable, and following the death of Jodeau's beloved younger daughter, it veers off in a direction neither had anticipated. And then Xas tells Jodeau something that drives the vintner almost beyond madness. --Lisa Gee

From the Back Cover
'A beautifully written exploration of the inexplicable, into which is woven an all-too-human chronicle of burning desire, violence, murderousness, bitter jealousy, curiosity, sexual deviations, shame and a fidelity of a sort' The Times

Burgundy, 1808. One night Sobran Jodeau, a young vintner, meets an angel in his vineyard: a physically gorgeous creature with huge wings that smell of snow, a sense of humour and an inquiring mind. They meet again every year on the midsummer anniversary of the date. Village life goes on, meanwhile, with its affairs and mysteries, marriages and murders, and the vintages keep improving - though the horror of the Napoleonic wars and into the middle of the century, as science marches on, viticulture changes, and gliders fly like angels.

'Strange, whimsical and deeply ambitious' Independent

'Enchanting' She

'Angelic writing and inspired structure' Guardian

About the Author
Elizabeth Knox is the author of five books, but The Vintner's Luck is the first to be published outside her native New Zealand. She is married and lives with her family in Wellington

Customer Reviews

Surreal, compelling and brilliant
...This is an extraordinary story that is rendered totally believable by the writer's beautiful lyrical style and skill. I've tried to describe this book to friends and was met with blank stares or raised eyebrows, in the end I just give them the book to read for themselves. The human characters are far from perfect, sometimes they are thoroughly dislikable, however it is the angel's own failings which provide the central humanity of this novel. I found myself sucked into the seductive prose, and emerged feeling as though I understood the darker side of all of us. I found myself wondering throughout how the author came up with these ideas; however, the results are so bewitching all I can do is shake my head in admiration. This book is about love, about desire, about our own failings and our perhaps unrealistic expectations of those around us. Read it.

Mesmerising, fascinating, couldn't put it down.
What a wonderfully thought provoking and imaginative story. I have sent this book to many of my friends as I was compelled to keep it alive by talking about the story and characters with other people who had read it.

The two main characters are wonderful and I felt their passion, anger and sadness as if I were there.

My imagination created the most wonderful scenes through the writing of Elizabeth Knox.

I recommend it without hesitation.

Unique
I read a lot of books, and this is the first book in ages which, once I had finished the final page, made me sit and think. The story is told in such a way you can picture events as they happen. The characters are portrayed in a way which makes you feel as though you know them. It makes you believe in something you may not have believed in before - God, angels, love. It might depress you. It may make you realise we're all mortal. It will be a book you read and remember, even if you don't necessarily enjoy it. And it is a book you will lend to all your friends because once you have read it you will want to discuss it. If you read one book this side of the millenium, let it be this one.