Love, Again is the story of Sarah Durham who, at age 65, can look back on a life well spent. A capable administrator and talented writer, she and three colleagues have spent years establishing their fringe theater, The Green Bird, as one of the most accomplished and solvent in London. But Sarahs life and the future of the theater are irrevocably changed when they embark on a production about the haunting life of Julie Vairon.

Born out of wedlock in 19th century Martinique, Julie Vairons life, on the island and later in France, is a tragic story of forbidden and failed love. Recently rediscovered and embraced by the public, Julies eloquent journals and hypnotic musical compositions reveal her fascinating life as a painter, writer, and composer.

Though Sarah alone initially adapts Julies diaries for the stage, a generous sponsorship for the production teams her up with Stephen Ellington-Smith, a middle-aged landed gentleman whose private passion for Julie has compelled him to write his own stage treatment. Involved in a peculiar, spiritless marriage, Stephen has fallen irrationally and inconsolably in love with the specter of Julie, who died three-quarters of a century ago.

Sarah and Stephen discover they are soul-mates as, in different ways, Julies story takes possession of their lives. As the production of Julie Vairon is mounted in the South of France, Stephen predictably becomes enamored with the actress portraying Julie. But Sarah, inexplicably affected by the strange passions embodied in the girls life and music, is shocked to find herself falling into a state of love and longing she thought she had left behind her youth.

The objects of her obsession are two considerably younger men. First is Bill Collins, a handsome and callow 28-year-old actor engaged to play Julies dashing first love. Sarah is at first amused, then troubled by this attraction. Next she falls for the 35-year-old American director, Henry Bisley, who shares Sarahs unconventional love, but struggles to remain faithful to his wife and young son.

Through her liaisons with these two men and her intimate friendship with Stephen, Sarah is forced to reassess the source and vigor of her capacity or love - both as an older woman and throughout her life. She attempts to guide Stephen through the vortex of his complicated, erratic feeling, at the same time struggling to understand and control her own emotionally dangerous impulses.

With deft probing and insight into the psychological complexities of human love, Doris Lessing imbues her new work with universal themes that will strike a familiar and disturbing chord with readers, much as The Golden Notebook continues to do thirty-five years after it was first published. Love, Again is a mature, fully-realized novel by one of the indisputable masters of the form.

Doris Lessing is the author of more than 30 books - novels, stories, reportage, poems, and plays. Her most recent works include African Laughter and Under My Skin. She lives in London.