'A captivating book - original, intelligent and very entertaining' Isabel Wolff

'Fane consistently focuses her smart, fluid prose and sophisticated thought on rendering a thoughtful, sorrowful and often highly amusing novel' The Times

Perdita Tree, the bored and beautiful wife of a Tory MP, believes that all women should have a magic door through which they can walk into a different life. So when she is kidnapped in Albania, she takes it in the spirit of one huge adventure. Adored by her kidnapper, who believes all things English are perfect, she is persuaded to rescue the Albanians from their dire history, and is vain enough to imagine that she can. The year is 1991, democracy is coming, but are the Albanians ready for it? And are they ready for Perdita?

This book was featured at the Ways With Words Festival, Dartington, and the Chichester Festival, and was chosen for Waterstone's Summer Reads promotion, 2005.

'Smart, fluid prose and sophisticated thought ... a thoughtful, sorrowful and highly amusing novel' Chris Power, The Times 'It races along at a rate of knots, leaving the reader smiling, satisfied and impressed' Fay Weldon 'A captivating book - original, intelligent and very entertaining' Isabel Wolff

OLIVIA FANE was born in 1960. She studied Classics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, trained as a probation officer and worked as a psychiatric social worker. She lives with her husband and five sons in West Sussex. Her first novel, Landing on Clouds, combined intellectual ideas with clear, involving prose; it won a Betty Trask award, and drew comparisons with Iris Murdoch.