The Bishop's Bedroom
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
"Piero Chiara’s novel is at once a murder mystery and a lyrical study of desire, greed, and deception. The ending is simply stunning."
—André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name
Summer 1946. World War Two has just come to an end and there’s a yearning for renewal. A man in his thirties is sailing on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, hoping to put off the inevitable return to work. Dropping anchor in a small, fashionable port, he meets the enigmatic owner of a nearby villa who invites him home for dinner with his older wife and beautiful widowed sister-in-law. The sailor is intrigued by the elegant waterside mansion, staffed with servants and imbued with mystery, and stays in a guest room previously occupied by a now deceased bishop related to his host. The two men form an uneasy bond, recognizing in each other a shared taste for idling and erotic adventure. They soon set sail together, encountering old flames and making new conquests. But tragedy puts an abrupt halt to their revels and shatters the tranquility of the villa. What really happened on the dock? And who was the figure glimpsed cycling around the shore in the dark? A sultry, stylish psychological thriller executed with supreme literary finesse.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chiara's engrossing novel of loafing lotharios in post-WWII Italy hums with suspense. An wealthy 30-something unnamed narrator gads about Lake Maggiore in the summer of 1946 on his unusual sailboat. He meets Temistocle Mario Orimbelli, recently returned to Italy following his time in the army in Africa, who insistently invites him to dine. Orimbelli takes him to his eerie villa and introduces his chilly wife, Cleofe, and sultry Matilde, the widow of Cleofe's presumed dead brother. The two men take to drifting along the lake and picking up women to seduce. Orimbelli annoys the narrator by always seducing the one the narrator prefers and acting as if he cannot help it. When Matilde agrees to accompany them on a short journey, the narrator sees his turn to consummate his attraction, but Orimbelli claims he shares a strong, secret love with Matilde. As the narrator begins to cool on his friend, a shocking death sets in motion a tense cascade of suspicion and new arrangements. Chiara's atmospheric writing and aching descriptions of desire amplify the effects of the characters' dubious choices. Readers will be swept away by this lush, gothic-tinged mystery and its unscrupulous characters.
Customer Reviews
The Bishop’s Bedroom.
The contrast between life on the lake after WW2 and in 2021 brought nicely recalled contrasting life on the lake and its towns, many now served by reliable state ferries. A tour de force for this Canadian Visitor staying in the ancient family Villa at Cannero.