Introduction

Martha Cooley, bestselling author of The Archivist, returns with a long-anticipated novel that ranges over the puzzles of family, the marvels of scent, and the release of constricted love. Years after the end of her marriage and the death of her mysterious father, Camilla Archer’s tightly reined existence is upended by her dreams.A man more real than her waking life begins appearing to her, a theatrical figure in a mask and tuxedo, offering up unexpected visions and reinventions of key moments in her past. In her waking life, Camilla, a New Yorker, runs a successful business selling theater memorabilia.Her knowledge of theater gives her a clue: this vexing nocturnal figure is connected to a legendary Russian director killed during Stalin’s purges.The masked man was the director’s double, in fact--and now he’s the sly impresario of Camilla’s dreams. So begins Camilla’s piecing-together of the puzzle of her past, along with that of her father, a perfumist, and Eve, the recently deceased cousin with whom Camilla grew up.Traveling in memory and dream back to Moscow and Paris between the wars, Camilla has the chance to unknot her life--if she’s willing to ask why a double has infiltrated her dreams, and what he wants her to discover.

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Excerpt

ONE



A BITTER medicinal smell, something like iodine. Then a sudden clearing, blankness in my nostrils. And then jasmine, gorgeously subtle at first but soon heavy, pungent, fetid: as if jasmine blossoms were rotting, as if rottenness itself underlay the fragrance, lending a brown tinge to the blossoms. ... view entire excerpt...

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»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Publisher interviews author Martha Cooley

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