Libro

THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, SOON TO BE A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
WINNER OF THE PREMIO STREGA GIOVANI
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PREMIO STREGA

'A gripping novel exploring the tensions in an apparently idyllic marriage, where a couple in their thirties is tested by their attraction to others, and by their own accumulation of desires and disappointments' Financial Times
'Masterful... The ending is just as good as that of Joyce's The Dead' Corriere della Sera
'You'll feel like taking refuge in this book and never leaving its confines' La Stampa
'A writer of pure excellence' Emmanuel Carrère
'Missiroli cuts right through to the darkness of our inner lives' Roberto Saviano
'Powerful, delicate, exquisite' Claudio Magris

Carlo, a part-time professor of creative writing, and Margherita, an architect-turned-real estate-agent: a happily married couple in their mid-thirties, perfectly attuned to each other's restlessness. They are in love, but they also harbour desires that stray beyond the confines of their bedroom: Carlo longs for the quiet beauty of one of his students, Sofia; Margherita fantasises about the strong hands of her physiotherapist, Andrea.

But it is love, with its unassuming power, which ultimately pulls them from the brink, aided by Margherita's mother Anna, the couple's anchor and lighthouse - a wise, proud seamstress hiding her own disappointments.

But after eight years of repressed desires and the birth of a son, when the past resurfaces in the form of books sent anonymously, will love be enough to save them?