In the novel that won her the booker prize and established her international reputation, Anita Brookner finds a new vocabulary for framing the eternal question "Why love?" It tells the story of edith hope, who writes rom...In the novel that won her the booker prize and established her international reputation, Anita Brookner finds a new vocabulary for framing the eternal question "Why love?" It tells the story of edith hope, who writes romance novels under a pseudonym. When her life begins to resemble the plots of her own novels, however, edith flees to switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to resore her to her senses.