Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: The Road to Urbino Author: Roma Tearne ISBN: 9781910709481 Publisher: Gallic Type of book: Sri Lanka, England, Italy, 1990s?-2017? Art, relationships, painting, barrister, dreams, immigration, living in Italy, Pierro della Francesca, unrequited love, Sri Lankan male/ British female, perception  Year it was published:  2012, 2020 Summary: A story of obsession, love and art set in Tuscany, Sri Lanka and London. Ras, a Sri Lankan who fled his country as a child following the violent death of his mother and his father's disappearance, has committed a crime. Dogged by his past and unable to come to terms with the killing of his mother, he struggles to make a new life for himself in the UK. Alex has loved Dee since he was 19 but failed to realise that it was a love he wouldn't find again. After Dee's marriage, he too struggles to build a meaningful life for himself. But when Ras' and Alex's lives connect, each man takes a new path culmin...

Name of Book: The Last Pier Author: Roma Tearne ISBN: 978-1-91070-930-6 Publisher: Aardvark Bureau Type of book: 1939, 1968, secrets, war, summertime, family, lies, spying, games, dancing, death, making peace, England, Italy, Arandora Star Year it was published: 2015, 2019 Summary: A  beautiful, atmospheric novel about family, love, loss, and regret by a critically acclaimed author How deep the summer had bitten into the land that last August, how cruelly it had burnt into earth and grass and air. What had started out as a pastel and water-faded spring turning so unexpectedly into a splintering, shimmering thing. All that had been required was a spark to cause a fire. Why had no one noticed? The summer of 1939 broke the Maudsley family. Cecily was only 13-years-old and desperate to grow up; desperate to be as beautiful and desired and reckless as her older sister Rose. Now, in her 40s, the family resemblance is uncanny, but Cecily is a shadow of her former s...