The Three Graces

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Ruth, Diana and Marta are three very different friends having a last 'adventure before dementia' after moving from England to Tuscany. Fierce, clever, bold and unconventional, they have survived into their eighties to live almost comfortably in an idyll of delicious food, wild flowers and affectionate dogs - but their happiness is upset by the forthcoming marriage of Ruth's eldest grandchild, Olly, to the ravishing yet dysfunctional Tania.

Xan, over to hear Marta's recital at the Santorno music festival, is more concerned with his grandmother's fading health than his former friend's nuptials. Diana has her own trials with her demented husband, and a beloved but estranged son. Ruth has meanwhile been charged with creating a setting for the wedding worthy of an Instagram influencer with over a million followers.

Meanwhile, Italy is grappling with migration from North Africa, something that only their neighbour and friend Enzo seems alarmed by, and the Palazzo Felice above Santorno has been bought by an oligarch, whom Putin wants to kill. How can all these incomers resolve their difficulties? Are lies, greed and violence the only solution, or could there be another way?

Like The Three Musketeers crossed with A Room With a View, this is a novel about female friendship, courage, old age, crime and art. Enchanting, suspenseful and original, it is literary fiction at its most entertaining.