The Catalans Author:Patrick O'Brian Set amongst the rolling vineyards and gentle courtyards of a small seaside village in Catalonia, Patrick O'Brian's second novel is a poignant story of tumultuous love, complex faith and one man's desperate bid to reclaim his humanity. — Summoned from his medical practice in China by a bevy of anxious aunts, Alain Roig returns to his C... more »atalan hometown, Saint-Feliu, to discover he has been nominated by family members with vested interests in the ancestral property to prevent an impending marriage between his cold, ascetic cousin Xavier, mayor and most powerful citizen of the town, and Madeleine, a quiet, introspective village girl of unusual beauty who does not return his affection. As Alain seeks to understand his cousin's complex motivations for wooing the unhappy girl, he is slowly drawn into Xavier's dark crisis of faith, the well-worn pattern of the sleepy Catalan days and the tight circle of village gossip that surrounds Madeleine.« less