Some things you only understand once it's too late to say them.

In Barcelona, a widowed Marine drifts through a Picasso museum because his wife's last request sent him there, searching for something he cannot name-until a stranger with a sketchbook sees him clearly.

In 1927 New York, a carriage driver watches a French actress play Roxane for a single night, and spends the rest of his life writing poems she will never read. Or so he believes.

In Provence, an aging hockey captain falls for a woman who has no idea who he is, then flies home to chase the only thing he ever wanted.

Three novellas about the moments that turn a life, and how completely an unexpected encounter can change one.

For readers of Fredrik Backman, Claire Keegan, and Elizabeth Strout, Tales of the Butterfly is a collection about grief, devotion, and the words we carry too long: emotionally serious without ever being bleak, and quietly hopeful about what remains possible after loss.

What would you say, while you still can?