With one caveat, I loved this novel.

Jan is an American professor/writer; Beatrice an Italian, educated and working in America, who spends her summers at the family villa in Tuscany. Introduced by a mutual friend, Jan, is invited to visit the villa where Beatrice reveals the background history of her aristocratic family, spanning the war years until the present. Over the years, Beatrice shares these stories and says of each “do you like it?….I give it to you”.

This book is a combination travelogue, family saga, and conundrum…who owns the stories of one’s friends and are they fair game for an author? Or is writing about them a betrayal?

The family’s history and surrounding Italian politics is fascinating in and of itself and many of the pleasures of a trip to Tuscany are here…the enticing landscape, the golden sun, vin santo and biscotti, fresh cornettos, a glass of wine, the rich espresso that only a caffettiera can make. While it is a fast read, I tried to slow it down, luxuriating in living that life.

All that said, I was disappointed in the ending….While it raises an interesting question, I felt it was rushed and left things unresolved. I think I could have enjoyed this book just as a travelogue and family saga without the unsettling and unsettled endings ( )