''An absolute joy to read...part love story, part ghost story, and a wholly enjoyable and intelligent summer read'' Amanda Craig, NEW STATESMAN

''Beautifully written'' EVE

''Part love story, part murder mystery, part psychological study... her writing truly soars'' TIME OUT

Thirtysomething New Yorker Lucy Stark leads a quiet, solitary life working for a bestselling - but remarkably untalented - writer. When he dies at a villa in Tuscany, Lucy flies to Italy to settle his affairs. What begins as a grim chore soon threatens her self-reliance and her very sense of reality.

In Italian Fever, Valerie Martin evokes a modern woman''s headlong tumble into a world where E.M. Forster''s angels feared to tread. Smart and sophisticated, this novel takes us on a journey from which we return, like Lucy, utterly changed.