Interesting character study. Our main character starts out sympathetic enough, but becomes more and more unhinged and unreliable as the telling goes on. The writing is great, but the character is kind of repulsive. She is slow to pick up on hints about what the others actual want or feel towards her. Because of the way it's told, it's hard to know what really happened, and which other characters even exist. She is certainly good at imagining backstory and facts that didn't happen. Is the whole story about the summer made up? It's obvious our main character had a hard life before she got to her house in Umbria - though the hints to her sexual assaults, prostitution, alcoholism are easy to miss. But I don't know if that enough to make the book. I appreciate the craft of the story, but these characters aren't anyone I would want to spend any time around.

Interesting character study. Our main character starts out sympathetic enough, but becomes more and more unhinged and unreliable as the telling goes on. The writing is great, but the character is kind of repulsive. She is slow to pick up on hints about what the others actual want or feel towards her. Because of the way it's told, it's hard to know what really happened, and which other characters even exist. She is certainly good at imagining backstory and facts that didn't happen. Is the whole story about the summer made up? It's obvious our main character had a hard life before she got to her house in Umbria - though the hints to her sexual assaults, prostitution, alcoholism are easy to miss. But I don't know if that enough to make the book. I appreciate the craft of the story, but these characters aren't anyone I would want to spend any time around.