My House in Umbria

Mrs. Emily Delahunty-a mysterious and not entirely trustworthy former madam-quietly runs a pensionein the Italian countryside and writes romance novels while she muses on her checkered past. Then one day her world is changed forever as the train she is riding in is blown up by terrorists. Taken to a local hospital to recuperate, she befriends the other survivors-an elderly English general, an American child, and a German boy-and takes them all to convalesce at her villa, with unforeseen results.

Sir William Trevor is the author of twenty-nine books and has received numerous literary awards, including the Whitbread Award, the Hawthornden Prize, and the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction.