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The Art Of Falling
  • Published: 1 September 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099481898
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $26.99

The Art Of Falling




A romantic historical novel about love and identity, set simultaneously in modern day Tuscany and in an Italy ravaged by World War Two. A sweeping wartime love story that is a must-buy for fans of Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Birdsong.

In 1944 Tom Wainwright, a British soldier, arrives in the small Italian town of Petriano. The war is nearly over, and in the lull before the Allied troops move further north to capture Florence Tom forges a friendship with the Parini family - and in particular with the eldest daughter, Giuliana. When the war ends he chooses to stay in Italy, planning to build a life with the woman with whom he has fallen deeply in love, but in the chaotic, tragic fallout of the end of the Second World War his hopes are dashed.

Fifty years later Isabel Wainwright, Tom's daughter, sets off for Petriano herself, to attend a ceremony naming a piazza in her father's honour. But Isabel isn't so much going to represent her father as to try and find him - for she and her mother have heard nothing of him since, nearly twenty years earlier, he went out one day and never returned. She doesn't even know whether her father is dead or alive, but hopes that by discovering something of his past, she can build a picture of the man she hardly knew.

  • Published: 1 September 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099481898
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $26.99

About the author

Deborah Lawrenson

Deborah Lawrenson spent her childhood moving around the world with diplomatic service parents, from Kuwait to China, Belgium, Luxembourg and Singapore. She graduated from Cambridge University and worked as a journalist in London. She is the author of five previous novels, including The Art of Falling, chosen for the prestigious WHSmith Fresh Talent promotion, and Songs of Blue and Gold, inspired by the life of writer-traveller Lawrence Durrell. Deborah is married with a daughter, and lives in Kent. The family spends as much time as possible at a crumbling hamlet in Provence, France, which is the atmospheric setting for her novel The Lantern.

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Praise for The Art Of Falling

This is a most wonderful novel. Evocative and haunting - it will keep you enthralled and intrigued right to the end

Amazon.co.uk reader review

A real treat to enjoy, best washed down with a big glass of Chianti and bucket of olives

Amazon.co.uk reader review

The scenes in the Italian countryside are beautifully written and the psychology of the characters are absolutely convincing. I was moved to tears

Amazon.co.uk reader review

A gracefully written narrative, ideal for those interested in knowing the Vietnam story and looking for a measured analysis of these still hotly contested events

Howard Jones, University of Albama

A superbly crafted novel that deserves to be called the new Captain Corelli or perhaps the new Birdsong...Moving, elegiac and lyrical

Daily Mail