The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

Later, he reads the note: It’s from Francesca, inviting him to return for dinner that evening. The next day at dawn, Robert shoots several rolls of film at Roseman Bridge, where he removes someone’s note from the bridge housing and visits a second bridge, where he takes more pictures. He thanks her for the evening and departs. They’re drawn to each other, and it’s more than merely physical. He accepts, washes up out back, and they enjoy a meal, good conversation, beers from his travel cooler, and a brief after-dinner walk. They return to the farmhouse, where Francesca invites him to dinner. They find Roseman Bridge, and Robert surveys the area for the best shooting angles. Hers is a durable if loveless marriage, but something about the tall, wiry stranger inspires Francesca, and she offers to show him the bridge herself. He stops at a farmhouse to ask for directions and meets Francesca Johnson, an attractive, middle-aged housewife alone for the week, her husband and children away at a state fair. He finds six of the bridges, but the seventh, Roseman Bridge, eludes him. In 1965, he drives his old pickup from his home in Washington state to Iowa to photograph the covered bridges there for a feature in National Geographic. Long since divorced, the solitary, lonely Robert Kincaid finds solace in his work as an international photographer. The narrator agrees, does extensive research, and discovers an intensely romantic tale that he fears some people will dismiss as claptrap. The narrator receives a visit from a man and a woman, siblings with one another, who ask him to write the story of their mother, Francesca Johnson, and her brief love affair with a photographer, Robert Kincaid. While the novel is entirely fictional, the narrative presents itself as the documentation of a true story, with the fictional character of the narrator assumed as the author.

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller