'A sophisticated tale of seduction by sex, wealth and the desire to belong!As in her travel writing and short stories, Lee is a superior courier. Her eye is knowing, her writing lively.' Lindsay Dugid, Sunday Times 'Italy is the perfect backdrop: stylish, impassioned and teeming with contradictions.' Daily Mail 'Moody, atmospheric, fun.' Time Out 'Lee writes movingly of that innocence, which once lost can never be recovered, of the price of betrayal and desire requited!beautifully measured with an eye for detail!characters resonate with intelligence and worldly sophistication in this haunting novel.' Irish Independent 'Andrea Lee is a wise and graceful writer![her] outsider status enables her to evoke so brilliantly what Henry James called the "international situation". The novel is, at root, a love story and though it's one we've read many times before, such are Lee's powers of observation and her skill with language that its retelling is more than justified.' Observer 'A painstaking inquiry into an adulterous love affair and its aftermath.' Guardian Praise for Andrea Lee: 'Andrea Lee is the real thing. There is nothing more to say.' Philip Roth

Andrea Lee is the author of two previous books, one of which, 'Russian Journal', was nominated for a National Book Award. She has had numerous stories published in the New Yorker and included in the annual O. Henry Best American Short Story anthologies. She lives with her husband and two children in Italy.