Ten Things I've Learnt About Love

Alice and Daniel are wanderers. While she wanders the globe, he paces London. He knows they are connected, and she occupies most of his waking thoughts, but she doesn't know he exists.

Alice is summoned home from Ulan Bator to be by her dying father's side.  It's a role she tries to avoid. Hours from death, his insistence on the bond between them raises questions. '"You know that - I love - you," he says. "As much - as the others."' Her sisters are conspiratorial, keeping silent.

Daniel, too, is edging towards death. Only love, and the pounding of his feet on London's pavements, keep him going. Gradually, we have insight to his secret - about the woman he loved and lost, who had Alice's hair.

At her father's funeral, Daniel catches Alice's eye, but she is too disturbed to pay attention. Alice has issues. Her mother died when she was a child, and she blames herself. She has relationship issues, too. This wanderer yearns for 'happy ever after'.

Daniel leaves her trinkets he's crafted from oddments found on his treks. They spell out his connection to her in colours. She's curious, but doesn't understand them. It's only when the two pace the streets together that there's real communication.

A thoughtful novel about family and other loving relationships, and our need to belong.