{"product_id":"book-dq6r","title":"The Certainties","description":"\u003cb\u003eA vivid, moving novel reminiscent of Anthony Doerr and Michael Ondaatje, about the entwined fates of two very different refugees.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1940, as the shadow of war lengthens over Europe, three mysterious travelers enter a village in Spain. They have the appearance of Parisian intellectuals, but the trio of two men and a woman are starving and exhausted from crossing illegally through the Pyrenees. Their story, told over a period of 48 tense hours, is narrated by one of the men, who slowly accepts his unthinkable fate. In a voice despairing and elegant, he calmly considers what he should do, and weighs what any one life means. As he does so, his attention is caught by a five-year-old named Pia who wanders near his cafe table. To Pia he begins to address all that he thinks and feels in his final hours--envisioning a rich future life for her that both reflects and contrasts with his own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeanwhile, in the 1980s, a woman named Pia seeks solitude on a remote island in the Atlantic, where she works at an inn and reflects on her chaotic childhood. As Pia's story begins, a raging storm engulfs the island and a boat flounders offshore. Pia and her fellow islanders rush to help--and past and present calamities collide.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy turns elegiac and heart-pounding, a love letter in the guise of a song of despair, \u003ci\u003eThe Certainties\u003c\/i\u003e is a moving and transformative blend of historical and speculative fiction--a novel that shows us what it means to bear witness, and to attend to those who seek refuge, past and present.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49327068741936,"sku":"BDdq6r","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/411198-dq6r-Square.jpg?v=1733680354","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-dq6r","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}