"Always on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take center stage--after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before. Then Damian, a young Irish caretaker, arrives at her London flat, there to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years. Traveling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York, a city full of art, larger-than-life characters and turmoil, Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can't last but will perhaps live on in other ways and in other people."-- provided by publisher.