The World at Noon

This novel is about Nicolo, who sets out to visit his ailing mother, sees his father (dead these past three years), has lunch with his daughter and falls in love with his daughter's friend, Roxane. It is also about Nicolo's handsome wife, Maeve, a strong woman with her own interests, including a romance she embarks on for comic relief. The story takes place against a background that includes Nicolo's youthful affair with his Aunt Regina, which in turn calls up old family legends about the great grandfather who was born with the flanks and hindquarters of a horse, and the great grandmother from the bordello, a woman so beautiful her looks could stun. But throughout all this, the drama focuses on Nicolo and Maeve and their children as the family unravels one way and knits up another. The World at Noon is a novel where everyday events, mingle with ancestral myths, a book that cascades from generation to generation and from the warm waters of the Mediterranean to the snowy fields of New England.