The Lovers: Morris West

Bryan de Courcy Cavanagh, successful international lawyer, is summoned back to his past - back to the early Fifties, to the loss of innocence and the bitter-sweet lessons of Rome's Black Aristocracy and love in the uncertain climate of the early post war years. On his birthday, a sealed letter from Rome arrives, bearing the arms of the ancient house of the Farnese di Mongrifone. Affectionate, even imperious, it is a summons from the woman he loved - and lost - in the turbulent, opportunistic world of postwar Europe. Beset by his memories of an extraordinary voyage on a private yacht on the Mediterranean forty years earlier, Bryan returns to Rome, where he discovers a closely guarded secret.