An Italian Affair

When Laura Fraser's husband leaves her for his high school sweetheart, she takes off, on impulse, for Italy, hoping to leave some of her sadness behind. There, on the island of Ischia, she meets M., an aesthetics professor from Paris with an oversized love of life. What they both assume will be a casual vacation tryst turns into a passionate, transatlantic love affair, as they rendezvous in London, Marrakech, Milan, the Aeolian Islands, and San Francisco. Each encounter is a delirious immersion into place (sumptuous food and wine, dazzling scenery, lush gardens, and vibrant streetscapes) and into each other. And with each experience, Laura brings home not only a lasting sense of pleasure, but a more fully recovered sense of her emotional and sexual self. Written with an observant eye, an open mind, and a delightful sense of humor, An Italian Affair has the irresistible honesty of a story told from and about the heart.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Sweet, smart. We are smitten from the start. -O: The Oprah Magazine

The introduction, discussion questions, suggested reading list, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of An Italian Affair by Laura Fraser, a spicy and highly entertaining feast for the mind and heart.

When Fraser's husband leaves her for his high school sweetheart, she sets off for southern Italy where she meets M, an aesthetics professor from Paris with an oversized love of life. This intimate, sensuous travelogue is wrapped around their unlikely but true love story.

Laura Fraser has written for Salon.com, Vogue, Glamour, Mother Jones, Self, The San Francisco Examiner, Gourmet, and Health, among other publications. She has taught magazine writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco.

From the Hardcover edition.