Having followed her new husband to his native home in rustic Tuscany, Ellana distracts herself from her marital disappointments by caring for her asthmatic son, and reevaluates her life when she meets American art lover Ross Story.

In this delightful, moving novel, Peter Pezzelli brings to life the earthy sensuality of Italy's Abruzzo region- the smell of just-baked bread wafting through the village piazza; the shopkeepers sweeping the sidewalks first thing in the morning; groups of cyclists dotting the mountain roads-and spins a story of May-December romance as sharp and delicious as the olives of Villa San Giuseppe. . . SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO TRAVEL FAR TO FIND YOUR WAY HOME. After...

"In 1944, a wounded British bomber pilot parachuted into German-occupied Tuscany and found refuge in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. Nearly thirty years later his estranged daughter finds a letter addressed to Sofia and embarks on a journey to Tuscany to discover his secrets and a past some would prefer be left undisturbed"--

Condemned by sixteenth-century demands for lucrative dowries in order to marry, young Serafina is ripped from an illicit love affair and confined in an Italian convent, a situation against which she passionately rebels and reminds the convent's doctor of her own unhappy early years.

A finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Jess Walter infuses his tightly plotted novels with a unique brand of mordant humor that has earned him a loyal and growing fan base. His sixth novel, Beautiful Ruins chronicles an unlikely romance that begins in 1962 along the Italian coast. The love affair wanes, only to be rekindled in Hollywood 50 years later.

On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in a scuffle in Campo San Stefano. The closest witnesses are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death-fake handbags of every designer label. The dead man had been working as a vu cumpra, one of the many African immigrants purveying goods outside normal shop hours and without work permits. Commissario Brunetti's response is that of everybody involved:...

After her husband asks for a divorce on their anniversary, acclaimed radio host Ginny Splinter impulsively invites four heartbroken listeners to join her on her holiday to Italy and, with her newfound friends, embarks on a vacation of healing and second chances.

"Two women botanists, connected across time, confront desire, ambition, and the seeming inevitability of violence"--