Lost Hearts in Italy
A Novel
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of Red Island House, an elegant, raw, and emotionally charged novel that reveals a trio caught in the grip of desire, deception, and regret.
When Mira Ward relocates to Rome with her husband, Nick, she looks forward to a time of exploration and awakening. Young, beautiful, and in love, Mira is on the verge of a writing career, and giddy with the prospect of living abroad.
On the trip over, Mira meets Zenin, an older Italian billionaire, who captivates Mira with his worldly mystique. A few weeks later, idle and adrift in her new life, Mira agrees to a seemingly innocent lunch with Zenin and is soon catapulted into an intense affair, which quickly moves beyond her control. Her job as a travel writer allows for clandestine trysts and opulent getaways to Paris, Monte Carlo, London, and Venice, and over the next few years, she struggles between resisting and giving in to this man who has such a hold on her. As her marriage erodes, so too does Mira’s sense of self, until she no longer resembles the free spirit she was on her arrival in the Eternal City.
A modern-day take on the tale of innocent Americans abroad, Lost Hearts in Italy is an unforgettable coming-of-age story in which cultures collide, innocence dissolves, and those we know most intimately remain foreign to us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lee's elegantly structured novel about a love affair that destroys a young couple's marriage unfolds through the individual perspectives of the wife, the husband, and the interloper, shifting back in forth between the mid-1980s and two decades later. Recent Harvard grads Mira Ward, an African American travel writer from Philadelphia, and Nick Reiver, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Yankee, are thrilled by Nick's transfer to his investment firm's Italian arm. On her flight to Rome, Mira meets Zenin, an older parvenu Venetian tycoon. She deflects him at first, but eventually, it is Zenin's cultural pride and air of ownership more than his yacht or private jet that seduce Mira-even after she gives birth to Nick's daughter, Maddie. The inevitable discovery and ensuing divorce-and Zenin's intransigent refusal to marry Mira or let her bear his child-are less the story than the everlasting effect these few years have on the three "lost hearts" of the title. Lee (Russian Journal) powerfully orchestrates the clash of cultures and wills through the interweaving of her characters' memories, which build in an emotional crescendo that overwhelms the young marriage and collectively becomes the leitmotif for each of them, for the rest of their lives.
