"Sometimes, I can feel in my bones a woman who's been dead 100 years wagging her finger at me, telling me that a lady doesn't make waves, a lady doesn't confront. Sometimes I find myself deferring to some old gentleman with no sense at all. It's not easy to escape . . . I think the South can be just a killer for its gifted women. My mother still says, once a year, 'It's not too late to get a teaching certificate.' . . . She just wants to make sure I'm not going to end up sleeping on a grate." Plot Summary
As a small girl, Catherine Gaillard witnesses an event which irrevocably alters the rest of life: her parents, lying naked and in the throes of ecstasy atop a bridge, are accidentally run over and killed. The experience leaves young Cat traumatized, and renders her incapable of leaving her cloistered mountaintop town in Tennessee. Once she escapes to the lofty heights of Trinity College, atop Morgan's Mountain, Cat simply refuses to ever come back down, in the fear that she would be sacrificing her ability to "see danger coming." Over the years, Cat constructs a perfect, self-contained world first for herself and then for her husband, Joe, a Yankee professor at Trinity. She manages to become the hub of social activity at Trinity, as well as raise her blind daughter, Lacey, all without ever leaving the safety of her mountain. But now, thirty years later, Cat realizes her need to confront her childhood fears and venture out into the world. When Joe's star pupils, Colin and Maria, invite the Gaillards to their wedding in Rome and then to accompany them on their honeymoon through Venice, Florence, and the surrounding Tuscany, Cat decides to take them up on their offer. Armed with thewise words of her psychiatrist and friend, Corinne, as well as a healthy quantity of Valium, Cat and Joe arrive in Rome, both exhilarated and apprehensive. They immediately find themselves swept up in the high society world of Maria's aunt Ada, and her husband, Sam Forrest, the internationally renowned charismatic painter. They are joined by the libidinous television personality, Yolanda Whitney, and soon all seven are traveling together throughout Italy. But as Italy releases in Cat a feeling of strength and confidence, her newfound freedom threatens to disrupt the comfortable patterns of her marriage. When Sam, who is currently experiencing a crippling dry spell in his painting, asks if he can paint Cat's portrait as they travel, the sexual tensions mount. The once-carefree trip turns into a journey to the very heart of their relationship and identities, as Cat and Joe find themselves in the midst of the ultimate test of their love.

Topics for Discussion
1. Three troubled marriages are portrayed in Hill Towns: Colin and Maria's, Sam and Ada's, and Cat and Joe's. How are their struggles and coping methods unique? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each couple? How would you characterize each couple? What aspects of each relationship do you find healthy? Unhealthy?

2. Cat remarks that in Venice, "we began to change in earnest, Joe and I, on that first slow ride down the Canal Grande. Or perhaps it was simply that we began to become . . . us." What does she mean? How were they not themselves while still living at Trinity? What does it mean to 'become yourself?' What role did Venice and Italy play in their changes? Do you think they would have changed had they gonesomewhere else in Europe? Or if they had merely gone somewhere else in America?

3. How does Catherine's pathology of needing to always be "able to see what was coming" manifest itself in her behavior? How has it shaped her identity? What is it that enabled her to break free from her fears?

4. How have Cat and Joe coped with their daughter's blindness? Has Lacey's disability served to bring them closer together, or has it planted the seeds of disunion?

5. Compare Joe and Sam. What qualities does Italy draw out of each? What about each of them attracts Catherine? Why are Sam and Joe drawn to Catherine? Which one best understands Cat's needs and desires?

6. Why do you think Sam wants to paint Cat's portrait? What is it he is trying to capture on canvas? Why does Sam show Cat Bernini's "Saint Teresa in Ecstasy?" What is the relationship between Sam's art and his sexuality?

7. Cat and Joe's relationship undergoes a profound change as a result of their visit to Italy. By the end of the novel, what is the state of their marriage? Has Cat betrayed Joe? Has Joe betrayed Cat? How do you define betrayal? What do you think is the next step?

Siddons' phenomenal national bestseller is a rare story of depth and deliverance. Spending two months on the New York Times bestseller list, Hill Towns explores the structure of marriage as a middle-aged wife and her English professor husband leave the safe haven of their Tennessee home and travel through Italy with friends.

This truly compelling novel is a magnificent kaleidoscope of the emotions that we most cherish — and fear. Showcasing the rare talent of Anne Rivers Siddons at her finest, Hill Towns probes deeply into the multiple meanings of love and relationships, as seen through the prism of one woman's life.

As a small child, a single event irrevocably changed the life of Catherine Gaillard — and rendered her unable to leave her cloistered mountaintop town in Tennessee for the next 30 years. Her devotion to her husband, Joe, and her desire to forever put this incident behind her propel Cat on a life-changing voyage to Italy.

Making their way across the Tuscany countryside in the company of newly married friends and an exuberant painter and his enigmatic wife, Cat and Joe feel the fabric that holds their marriage together — so carefully woven together at home — begin to unravel. The once-carefree trip turns into a journey to the very heart of their relationship... and the ultimate test of their love.

Anne Rivers Siddons bestselling novels include Sweetwater Creek, Nora, Nora, Low Country, Up Island, Fault Lines, Downtown, Hill Towns, Colony, Outer Banks, King's Oak, Peachtree Road, Homeplace, Fox's Earth, The House Next Door, and Heartbreak Hotel. She is also the author of a work of nonfiction, John Chancellor Makes Me Cry. She and her husband Heyward split their time between their home in Charleston, SC and Brooklin, ME.