An evocative trip to Liguria

• Book: The Italian Flame
• Location: Dorset, Italian Riviera
• Author: Rosanna Ley

Review Author: Eva Glyn

This is a story of lost love, missed chances, and most of all – family.
In 1965 free spirited Marilyn falls in love with Italian Bruno and they embark on a brief but passionate affair. Bruno swears to return when he heads back to Italy, and Marilyn promises to wait. But then she discovers she is pregnant and is forced by her family to give the baby up for adoption. Years later we meet Marilyn on her deathbed, with her younger daughter Lily caring for the mother she feels she never really knew. And once she dies, the secrets of her life before begin to come out, and piecing the clues together Lily travels to Italy to find her older sister Josephine.
Both Dorset and The Bay of Poets in Liguria are exquisitely drawn, especially the village of Perlarosa where most of the story takes place. And this not just in terms of the stunning scenery, but of the people who inhabit it too, each and every one of them having their part to pay.
As ever I am wary of saying too much, for fear of spoiling this wonderful story, but I do thoroughly recommend it. My heart will remain in Perlarosa for a very long time.

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