Christopher and Alexandra’s passion for each other raises eyebrows and invites envy. This beautiful, blinkered couple do the unthinkable and run away from home, abandoning their two teenage children. Their sudden departure is an act of glorious wilfulness. Life in the countries they visit is nothing more than a backdrop to their love affair. Fifteen years later Alexandra is in remote Bolivia with a lover young enough to be her son and Christopher is in Venice, desolate and alone but for the pigeons and prostitutes. Tormented by past mistakes, neither can accept that they may never meet again. ‘The most exhilarating novel I’ve read all year.’ Scotland on Sunday ‘A rich story of the heart told through a harlequin pattern of alternating voices, each of which is a work of real imaginative insight.’ Marie Claire ‘Maggie Gee’s immense talent catches passion on the wing … a romance of a truth and depth that’s never without humour.’ Mail on Sunday ‘A remarkable and ambitious book, a tribute to Maggie Gee’s imaginative power.’ Literary Review ‘More erotic than a thousand blockbusters’ Mail on Sunday ‘So rich it is almost aromatic ... an impressive and important novel’ Nigella Lawson, The Evening Standard ‘Compulsive reading’ The Sunday Times