Shepherd

Richard Matturro’s Shepherd is about the discovery of second love by a man and a woman who have both lost the thread of their own lives. Stuart, following the death of his wife, has taken early retirement from his classics professorship and withdrawn from the world. Daphne, a newcomer to Stuart’s small village community, wears a more deliberate disguise, for still more bitter reasons. His searching out her secret adds an element of mystery to this subtly captivating narrative. Based (very loosely) on the myth of Daphne and Apollo from Ovid, Shepherd is a compelling story of love lost and regained — and also a healing meditation on grief and its survival, with something about what a good shepherd (in this case a dog) can do to mediate that process