Sometimes love isn’t where you belong

In a small town in the Abruzzo region of Italy, Gino, a troubled young man, realises that his childhood sweetheart Franca can give his life the happiness and stability he needs. They seem made for each other, and move to a remote house in the countryside. Franca soon gives birth to a son so handsome that people come from miles around to see him - but his sheer beauty causes Gino to doubt that he is truly the boy's father.

Descending into pathological jealousy and resentment towards a married man who had been Franca's lover, Gino is unable to stop himself imagining the worst, and embarks on a violent path that has catastrophic effects on those around him.

RUPERT THOMSON is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels, of which Air and Fire and The Insult were shortlisted for the Writer's Guild Fiction Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize respectively. His most recent novel, Death of a Murderer, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop was published in 2009.