Calling upon language and metaphor so rich in talent as to be nearly unrivaled among today's writers of literary fiction, John Gardiner gives us Tapestries, a novel that weaves threads of love, transformation, awakening, and passion. As if possessing the finest brushes and most exquisite eye, the author's eponymous main character radiates intellectual depth, as well as suppressed emotions. Attending a wedding, he espies a woman who shall soon control his heart. We follow him through the frustration of loving a woman who remains out of reach, during his periods of writing, which mark the moments when he confronts most honestly his yearnings, and shares in his extraordinary university lectures where he debates other scholars' insistence that the Great Folio was the work of Shakespeare, not Bacon. For readers who seek art in literature, John Gardiner has delivered a modern masterpiece.