Scarred Hearts - Hardcover

'Scarred Hearts is a masterpiece, and all the more poignant for being so beadily accurate about human behaviour in extremis. It is a book to live with, to read again and again, as only great literature demands us to.' --Paul Bailey

In Berck-sur-Mer, on the edge of the sea, a young man named Emanuel lies ill. He has come to a sanitorium to undergo a cure - one that is almost as dreadful as his illness. Encased in a plaster cast to immobilize his bones, he must rest indefinitely and hope for the return of his health.
In despair Emanuel lies on his back and listens to the waves on the shore outside. Little by little, though, as he becomes accustomed to the strangeness of his new world, he discovers that life within the sanitorium is as vibrant and chaotic as the one he left in Paris.
Emanuel's days are soon filled with eccentric friendships and unexpected passions. Blecher conjures a world that vibrates with life despite the constant threat of anguish and disintegration; an existence that demands both commitment and renunciation. Psychologically astute and heartbreaking, full of pathos and humour, Scarred Hearts is a quiet marvel of luminous storytelling.