A story of complicated families and a wartime secret that ripples down through the generations from a writer of exceptional talent.

A story of complicated families and a wartime secret that ripples down through the generations from a writer of exceptional talent. Tommaso is just about making it work: travelling abroad for his job, helping his girlfriend with her two unruly sons, and keeping up with the eccentricities of his Italian grandmother, Alma. But as Alma grows increasingly troubled by strange and unsettling memories, Tommaso realises that there is much in her past that he doesn't know. And the more he discovers, the more it seems that the secrets she has guarded for so long might not only overwhelm her, but upend his own precariously balanced life too. Reaching back to the tumultuous days of the Italian resistance during the Second World War and into the domestic chaos of modern life, this is a story of the past's long shadow, and the families we have and those we make.

"Luminous and compelling... Shines a devastating spotlight on the treatment of Italians in the UK during WWII, and on its intergenerational legacy. A story about the absorption of loss, the fragility of memory, and ultimately, the power of love" - author of Two Hours and Where to Find Me

"Alive with vivid detail, Ben Faccini's third novel weaves personal and national histories into a deeply affecting meditation on the treasures and burdens passed across time, with the Italian grandmother, Alma, as its miraculous beating heart" - author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room

"In this deeply moving novel, Faccini manages to tell two parallel tales, a romantic comedy and a tragedy" - AnOther

"A beautifully balanced work about the fragility of family - biological or otherwise - and the mysteries it is sometimes necessary to preserve in order to maintain that unit... A consummately written work of fate, regret and resolution" - Financial Times