Exposures, a novel

Witness the opportunity that is youth and the journey that is age. A tale of two destinies, two passions undiminished by setback or denial. Jess Cappello learned to photograph on the battlefields of Korea. Forty years later, at the apex of his career, the aged artist discovers he is losing his sight, and his muse--the dazzling young painter Catalina Brezza. Across the continent, Dr. Sarah Harte-Valentine is determined to prevent her daughter, the fiery redheaded Zoë, a teenage cello prodigy, from following in the footsteps of her wayward father, a London jazzman. At stake, an audition that could make, or break, Zoë's promising career. Pressed to desperate measures, Sarah forces Zoë to join her on an outback photography expedition, led by famed New Mexican photographer Jess Cappello. When a mountain lion stalks the camp and Jess fails to make a critical shot that could save their lives, Sarah deciphers the secret of his failing eyesight. In the face of Sarah's formidable personality, an unexpected bond forms between the irascible photographer and the hot-headed rebellious teenager as Sarah barters the photographer's growing influence over her daughter against her medical ability to treat Jess' encroaching blindness. It is not until Jess returns with Sarah and her daughter to California and enters the world of Zoë's music that he discovers the young cellist is driven by a passion and purity of instinct he understands. At stake is more than just one man's vision and one young girl's gift, but the absolute destiny of both. Exposures is a drama of extraordinary talent and human destiny woven within the portals of music and twenty of history's remarkable photographs.