The Villa In Italy: Elizabeth Edmondson

Four strangers are summoned to the grand but neglected villa, the home of the late Beatrice Malaspina, on the Italian coast. Each of them has been named in a will, but not one of them knows their benefactress. Four very different people...Delia, an opera singer robbed of her voice by illness; George, an idealistic scientist who cannot face what his skills have created; Marjorie, desperately poor and unable to dislodge her writer's block; and Lucius, ostensibly in control but whose personal life is in chaos. But who was Beatrice Malaspina? While they wait to find out, the villa begins to work its seductive magic. With its faded frescoes, overgrown garden and magnificent medieval tower, it is unlike anywhere they have been before. Slowly, four characters who have gone to great lengths to hide their troubles find that change - and even hope - is possible after all. But the mysterious Beatrice has a devastating secret to reveal that will affect them all. A beautiful evocation of Italy in the aftermath of World War Two, the personal consequences of living through such a time and a celebration of humankind's ability to heal and learn to love again.