finished reading

This book has been on my radar for a while and I'm so glad I finally read it.  The storytelling is detailed and vivid and rich.  The main character, Daniel Sullivan, is slightly oblivious to the world around him and his lack of awareness is what drives the storyline.  It's not a linear narrative--it is told from multiple perspectives and in multiple ways, one chapter is told through the descriptions of items being auctioned off that belonged to Daniel's wife, a reclusive former film sensation.

It's a story about grief and love and family.  It's about places you find yourself both literally and philosophically.  But more than the story is the gorgeous writing.  

From the publisher:

Daniel Sullivan, a young American professor reeling from a failed marriage and a brutal custody battle, is on holiday in Ireland when he falls in love with Claudette, a world-famous sexual icon and actress who fled fame for a reclusive life in a rural village. Together, they make an idyllic life in the country, raising two more children in blissful seclusion—until a secret from Daniel’s past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home. What follows is a journey through Daniel’s many lives told in his voice and the voices of those who have made him the man he is: the American son and daughter he has not seen for many years; the family he has made with Claudette; and irrepressible, irreverent Claudette herself. Shot through with humor and wisdom, This Must Be the Place is a powerful rumination on the nature of identity, and the complexities of loyalty and devotion—a gripping story of an extraordinary family and an extraordinary love.