A dazzlingly imagined novel that embraces two centuries, two young women, a long-lost journal, and the mystery of the legendary Casanova's last great love.

It's 1797, and an aging Casanova has returned to Venice in disguise to elude the authorities. There he meets Asked For Adams, the niece of American president John Adams, who is accompanying her father on a trade mission, just as Napoleon's army invades, throwing the city into chaos. Casanova convinces Asked For to abandon her future as the wife of a Yankee farmer and set out with him on a dangerous adventure through post-Byzantine Greece to Istanbul, which she records in intimate detail in her travel journal-until the account ends suddenly.

Two hundred years later this journal comes into the possession of Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant, an awkward and shy young archivist grieving her mother's death. En route to her mother's memorial service in Crete, accompanied by her mother's lover, and entrusted with delivering precious letters by Casanova to the Venetian library, she falls under the spell of the two adventurers and becomes determined to find out what happened to them.

As their stories interweave, both young women are touched by the spirit of Casanova, a man whose appetite for life and generous spirit ignites possibility everywhere he goes. By the end, Luce uncovers the fate not only of Asked For but of her own mother, and she finds herself set free by what she learns about travel, self-invention, loss, acceptance, and, of course, love.

"The mystery of Casanova's last great love lies at the center of Swan's alluring novel (after The Wives of Bath). In the present, Luce Adams, a young archivist, and Lee, the woman who was her late mother's lover, are uneasy travel companions on their way to Crete to host a memorial service for Kitty Adams, a flamboyant scholar famous for her controversial work on ancient goddess cults. On the way, Luce must deliver important family documents to a library in Venice: the diary of ancestor Asked For Adams, the spirited and independent daughter of a cousin of President John Adams; another document that appears to be written in Arabic; and letters in Casanova's hand. The library really wants the letters, while Luce becomes fascinated with Asked For's diary. Asked For disappeared while in Venice with her father in 1797; her diary reveals that she left with the aging Casanova and traveled with him throughout the Mediterranean on much the same route that Luce herself is taking. The mystery of Asked For's fate — as well as that of Luce's mother — unfolds through the alternating perspectives of past and present. Though the many parallels between Asked For and Luce strain credibility, their stories weave together well and Asked For, in particular, has a bright, engaging voice. Agent, Kim Witherspoon. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

(Library Journal)

(Calgary Herald)

(Publishers Weekly)

This dazzlingly imagined novel embraces two centuries, two young women, a long-lost journal, and the mystery of the legendary Casanova's last great love.

The sixth daring novel from Canada's pre-eminent explorer of the sexual psyche is a dazzlingly imagined story that encompasses transformation, love, archaeology and freedom.

It's 1797, and an aging, lovesick Jacob Casanova enters Venice in disguise on a public barge. There he persuades Asked For Adams, the young Puritan cousin of American President John Adams, to set out with him on a romantic odyssey through post-Byzantine Athens and Istanbul, which she lovingly records in her travel journal.

Framing their adventure is the story of beautiful Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant and inheritor of her journal, who is on her way to her mother's memorial service with her mother's lover, Lee Pronski. She arrives in Venice full of expectations just as Casanova and Asked For did two hundred years earlier.

Using Asked For's journal as a guide, Luce travels through Venice, Greece and Turkey, and begins to see how she can seize experience and come to terms with her mother's love for her and for Lee. As the journeys of the two women come together, Luce finds her own way of moving through the world, and Asked For discovers how vulnerable the great Casanova was — a man whose brilliance and generous mind make him a presence that still ignites possibilities.

Excerpt from "What Casanova Told Me

"Luce examined the letters first, untying the ribbon with her long skilful fingers. The staff at the Sansovinian would be pleased: not a drop of twenty-first-century moisture marred the paper bearing the watermark of the famous Italian printer Fabriano. The letters were written in French and Italian in a dramatic, eighteenth-century style. . . .

"From the Hardcoveredition.

Susan Swan's highly acclaimed fiction has been published in twenty countries. Her last novel, The Wives of Bath, was made into the feature film Lost and Delirious. Her other books include The Biggest Modern Woman of the World and The Last of the Golden Girls. She lives in Toronto.