Let Me Tell You About a Man I Knew

Provence, May 1889. The hospital of Saint-Paul-de Mausole is home to the mentally ill. An old monastery, it sits at the foot of Les Alpilles mountains. For years, the fragile have come here and lived quietly, found rest behind the shutters and high, sun-baked walls. Tales of the new arrival - his savagery, his paintings, his copper-red hair - are quick to find the warden's wife. From her small cottage, Jeanne Trabuc watches him. Jeanne knows the rules; she knows not to approach the patients. But this man - troubled and intense - is, she thinks, worth talking to. So ignoring her husband's wishes, Jeanne climbs over the hospital wall. She will find that the painter will change all their lives.