Italian Fever

'An absolute joy to read...part love story, part ghost story, and a wholly enjoyable and intelligent summer read' Amanda Craig, NEW STATESMAN 'Beautifully written' EVE 'Part love story, part murder mystery, part psychological study... her writing truly soars' TIME OUT Thirtysomething New Yorker Lucy Stark leads a quiet, solitary life working for a bestselling - but remarkably untalented - writer. When he dies at a villa in Tuscany, Lucy flies to Italy to settle his affairs. What begins as
a grim chore soon threatens her self-reliance and her very sense of reality. In Italian Fever, Valerie Martin evokes a modern woman's headlong tumble into a world where E.M.Forster's angels feared to tread. Smart and sophisticated, this novel takes us on a journey from which we return, like Lucy, utterly changed.

Valerie Martin is one of America's finest contemporary novelists, best known for her Orange Prize-winning PROPERTY and also the acclaimed MARY REILLY, which was filmed by Stephen Frears. Other highly praised novels include THE GHOST OF THE MARY CELESTE and MRS GULLIVER. She is the author of three collections of short stories and SALVATION, a biography of St Francis. www.valeriemartinonline.com