3.17.2018 - The Italian Party

 

Book Summary:

Newly married, Scottie and Michael are seduced by Tuscany's famous beauty. But the secrets they are keeping from each other force them beneath the splendid surface to a more complex view of ltaly, America and each other.

When Scottie’s Italian teacher―a teenager with secrets of his own―disappears, her search for him leads her to discover other, darker truths about herself, her husband and her country. Michael’s dedication to saving the world from communism crumbles as he begins to see that he is a pawn in a much different game. Driven apart by lies, Michael and Scottie must find their way through a maze of history, memory, hate and love to a new kind of complicated truth.

Half glamorous fun, half an examination of America's role in the world, and filled with sun-dappled pasta lunches, prosecco, charming spies and horse racing, The Italian Party is a smart pleasure.

About The Author:

Christina Lynch’s picaresque journey includes chapters in Chicago and at Harvard, where she was an editor on the Harvard Lampoon. She was the Milan correspondent for W magazine and Women’s Wear Daily, and disappeared for four years in Tuscany. In L.A. she was on the writing staff of Unhappily Ever After; Encore, Encore; The Dead Zone and Wildfire. She now lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. She is the co-author of two novels under the pen name Magnus Flyte. She teaches at College of the Sequoias. The Italian Party is her debut novel under her own name.

Website: http://christinalynchwriter.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christinalynchauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/clynchwriter

My review...

Thanks so much to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Christina Lynch for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the story of Michael and Scottie - two young people who meet, get married quickly, and find themselves in Italy 11 years after WWII.  Michael is starting up a Ford tractor business and is intent on saving Italy from the Communists.  and Scottie soon finds a teenage boy to help her learn Italian as well as more about her new world.  Sounds perfect...until it is revealed that both Michael and Scottie are keeping so many secrets from each other.  When Scottie's young friend suddenly goes missing and she starts investigating, those secrets start coming to life one after the other.

This is a sometimes funny and sometimes serious book about relationships with each other and the world we inhabit.  The descriptions of the Italian food and countryside in the 1950s were wonderful.  Definitely a fun and intriguing read!