Publisher's Synopsis
It was the summer of 1916, that precarious year.... Albra Creighton, a young girl from an upper-class family, is caught between her mother's expectations and a growing awareness of her own identity. Drawn into the city's fledgling art world, Albra's painting records the casualties and suffering of two very different wars. Not far away is Gabriel Oban, raised next to the steel mills and the violence of his father's political convictions. Like Albra, Gabriel returns to the innocence of his youth only by seeking a life beyond the reach of his past. As their lives converge, both Albra and Gabriel climb from the ashes of private battles, meeting in a place where each may begin again. A winner of the 2001 Hamilton Literary Awards, Of Water & Wine is a triumphant novel heralding the human quest for meaning and transcendence.
