Under Their Skin

Dr. Roman Micheli runs his laser clinic like a discreet Swiss bank. His World Health doctor wife Isabel devotes herself to curing leprosy around the globe. Devoted professionals, they have no time for children and hardly enough for each other.
Then the Michelis’ complacent partnership starts to unravel. An American violinist sweeps onto a Geneva concert stage to weave a musical spell over her jaded audience. Ever the doctor, Roman strains from his seat to diagnose the purple birthmark marring the virtuoso's beauty. Could the science of his lasers transform this young musician’s future?
Or will her art threaten his? In this love triangle of serial misunderstandings, lost opportunities, well-meant bungling, misplaced passions and fatal cultural confusion—no one foresees the unexpected consequences that lurk under ‘the skin’ of his or her everyday choices.

Dinah Lee Küng's A Visit From Voltaire was nominated for the Orange Prize in 2004.

“. . . understanding that it is what the characters mean to one another that drives the tension. Ultimately, this is a gutsy novel and it confirms that this is a writer who can be read seriously.” Jonathan Miller, Channel 4, UK

“The threads are brilliantly woven together in a very moving finale. . . tremendous fun to read. There is an added pleasure in the familiar Genevan landscape that is evoked throughout the novel and the gentle humor at the expense of the Swiss.” Shirley Curran, Geneva Lunch