“I’m sorry, my darling, but it’s not good news,” said Dr Doolabh, gently tilting his head to the side, as if to cushion the blow, “it’s cancer.” Inside I felt a distinct crack and heard the unequivocal sound, heard only by me, of a tendon snapping. In time, I would...
During those first days in Civitella, I could not get off to sleep. From the walls of the place where I was lodging, I could see the castle. I would sit myself down to contemplate it throughout the night, sleepless into dawn. Holding a glass of wine in the dark, I...
I came to Civitella with ambition to complete a novel begun in the summer of 2001, a structurally thorny narrative – or that is to say, the process of finding the structure had been thorny – and when I arrived at the castle I knew I should be closing in on the...
