Lead Review

• Book: The Tuscan Contessa
• Location: Tuscany
• Author: Dinah Jefferies

Review Author: tripfiction

We are very fond of Dinah’s books because she always makes setting a big part of the story. In her earlier novels she has explored the Far East and Sri Lanka and this time she has moved to Europe and to Tuscany, which is beautifully rendered at a very difficult period of Italian history.

At the beginning of the book she charts the trajectory of the German occupation which helps to understand the bigger picture just a little more

Contessa Sofia de’ Corsi is managing a large estate, her husband is away on various missions. The Germans are in occupation and she has to do the best she can given the terrible circumstances.

Maxine comes up from Rome and both women, although theirs is not always an easy co-existence, have to forge their way through difficult, challenging and scary times. And this is what the author does so well. She sets feisty women centre stage, builds her story around them and brings it all together, set against a colourful and and vivid backdrop. She observes the detail of the surroundings and the intricacies of human existence, making it a human and very readable story. The story sweeps the reader along.

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