I love the sound of this one. how about you?
Villa America; Liza Klaussmann
Little Brown - August 2015
A dazzling novel set in the French Riviera based on the real-life inspirations for F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is The Night.
When Sara Wiborg and Gerald Murphy met and married, they set forth to create a beautiful world together-one that they couldn't find within the confines of society life in New York City. They packed up their children and moved to the South of France, where they immediately fell in with a group of expats, including Hemingway, Picasso, and Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.
On the coast of Antibes they built Villa America, a fragrant paradise where they invented summer on the Riviera for a group of bohemian artists and writers who became deeply entwined in each other's affairs. There, in their oasis by the sea, the Murphys regaled their guests and their children with flamboyant beach parties, fiery debates over the newest ideas, and dinners beneath the stars.
It was, for a while, a charmed life, but these were people who kept secrets, and who beneath the sparkling veneer were heartbreakingly human. When a tragic accident brings Owen, a young American aviator who fought in the Great War, to the south of France, he finds himself drawn into this flamboyant circle, and the Murphys find their world irrevocably, unexpectedly transformed.
A handsome, private man, Owen intrigues and unsettles the Murphys, testing the strength of their union and encouraging a hidden side of Gerald to emerge. Suddenly a life in which everything has been considered and exquisitely planned becomes volatile, its safeties breached, the stakes incalculably high. Nothing will remain as it once was.
Liza Klaussman expertly evokes the 1920s cultural scene of the so-called "Lost Generation." Ravishing and affecting, and written with infinite tenderness, VILLA AMERICA is at once the poignant story of a marriage and of a golden age that could not last.
When Sara Wiborg and Gerald Murphy met and married, they set forth to create a beautiful world together-one that they couldn't find within the confines of society life in New York City. They packed up their children and moved to the South of France, where they immediately fell in with a group of expats, including Hemingway, Picasso, and Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.
On the coast of Antibes they built Villa America, a fragrant paradise where they invented summer on the Riviera for a group of bohemian artists and writers who became deeply entwined in each other's affairs. There, in their oasis by the sea, the Murphys regaled their guests and their children with flamboyant beach parties, fiery debates over the newest ideas, and dinners beneath the stars.
It was, for a while, a charmed life, but these were people who kept secrets, and who beneath the sparkling veneer were heartbreakingly human. When a tragic accident brings Owen, a young American aviator who fought in the Great War, to the south of France, he finds himself drawn into this flamboyant circle, and the Murphys find their world irrevocably, unexpectedly transformed.
A handsome, private man, Owen intrigues and unsettles the Murphys, testing the strength of their union and encouraging a hidden side of Gerald to emerge. Suddenly a life in which everything has been considered and exquisitely planned becomes volatile, its safeties breached, the stakes incalculably high. Nothing will remain as it once was.
Liza Klaussman expertly evokes the 1920s cultural scene of the so-called "Lost Generation." Ravishing and affecting, and written with infinite tenderness, VILLA AMERICA is at once the poignant story of a marriage and of a golden age that could not last.
This sounds like a book that's worth waiting for, Diane!
ReplyDeleteYes, it seems to have a little bit of everything in it.
DeleteIt does sound good!
ReplyDeleteYes Mary, a little different from the kinds of books that I've read lately.
DeleteI'm anxious to read this one!
ReplyDeleteIt has been getting a bit of buzz as well.
DeleteSounds wonderful! I will be keeping my eye out for it.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, hope you try this one at some point.
DeleteI have Villa America! I must get to it soon. I committed to a lot of books for July. Oops.
ReplyDeleteI'll never finish all of my July commitments :(
DeleteI've had my eye on this one as I'm somewhat fascinating by all things Fitzgerald (more Zelda than Scott). I'll be interested to hear what you think!
ReplyDeleteNot sure when I will be able to start it, but soon I hope.
DeleteDang, another good find!
ReplyDeleteToo many books, too little time.
DeleteI CAN'T WAIT for this one. Loved Tigers in Red Weather, loved all the recent Fitzgerald-inspired historical fiction.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you enjoy it.
DeleteYou too?? LOL Me, as well.
ReplyDeleteI like the setting and the era it describes. I hope I can get to this one
ReplyDeleteThere's a wonderful book about the real people - Everybody Was So Young by Amanda Vaill. I so loved it.
ReplyDelete