Grand Canary

Destiny brings two lonely people together in this moving love story by A J Cronin, one of the master story-tellers of our time.
Dr Harvey Leith, brilliant research scientist, awakes from a drunken stupor to find himself aboard a liner bound for the romantic Canary Islands. His past life is in ruins, and his hopes for the future are shattered.
But he meets the lovely Mary Fielding on the ship, also looking for a new purpose in her life. It seems to her that they have met somewhere before, in some other place, and that they are meant for each other. There is only one problem - she is already married.
Dr Leith's life becomes inextricably involved with those of the other passengers and he gradually begins to forget the bitterness of the past. In the sultry atmosphere of Grand Canary he finds he has to conquer himself to achieve happiness.

Born in Cardross, Scotland, AJ Cronin studied at the University of Glasgow. In 1916 he served as a surgeon sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteers Reserve, and at the war's end he completed his medical studies and practiced in South Wales. He was later appointed to the Ministry of Mines, studying the medical problems of the mining industry. He later moved to London and built up a successful practice in the West End. In 1931 he published his first book, Hatter's Castle, which was compared with the work of Dickens, Hardy and Balzac, winning him critical acclaim. Other books by AJ Cronin include: The Citadel, Three Loves, The Green Years, Beyond This Place, The Keys of the Kingdom.