Synopses & Reviews
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Chicago Tribune Best Book of the YearA
Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year
Beth and Cesare meet in Greece, she an American dreamer and he an Italian heir. Their love affair begins in the warmth and brilliance of the Aegean Sea. As their passion spans time and continents, their lives are forever entangledtheir love a dizzying, exquisite story of culture, country, and the bonds we cannot break.
"Romance rules in L'America."--Harper's Bazaar
"L'America's beauty lies in the love between Cesare and Beth, neither idealized nor tragic but real in all its intensity. Everyone should feel that kind of love, if only just once."Elle
"Captures the headlong energy of falling in love for the first time and discovering a sensual culture. A transcendent ending."--Los Angeles Times
"Luminous. McPhee is a brilliant stylist, and here she creates characters so palpably real, they seem to ache on the page . . . LAmerica is a heartbreaker of a book about everyday people made extraordinary by love."--The Washington Post Book World MARTHA McPHEEs novel Gorgeous Lies was a National Book Award Finalist. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She teaches at Hofstra University and lives in New York.
Review
"McPhee...is a daughter of the nonfiction writer John McPhee, who is arguably America's most famous literary obsessive, and she has inherited a relish for sharing every detail, no matter how small." New York Times
Review
"With adroit sleight of narrative hand, McPhee dramatizes cultural contrasts, the unending repercussions of first love, the gradual metamorphosis of the self, the erotics of heartbreak, and the consolation of beauty." Booklist
Review
"McPhee draws the reader into the lives of this irresistibly spirited, intensely determined couple even though we know by page 12 that their love is doomed." Library Journal
Review
"Ambitious and literate." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"As easy as it is to bandy around philosophical and geopolitical musings that label each and every one of us, McPhee reminds the reader of the human side of life, its pain and joy." San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
In the brilliant Greek sunshine of a small Aegean island, Beth and Cesare meet-and thus begins a transformative love affair that spans two continents, two decades, and two lifetimes. Cesare is a cosseted Italian boy, raised in a prosperous town where his family has lived for five hundred years; Beth, an ambitious American dreamer born to hippies and raised on a commune. The events of September 11 serve as a catalyst for the unfolding of their story, in which passion struggles against the inexorable force of patria. An examination of the intersection between Europe and America, the old and the new,
L'America is above all a remarkable evocation of the dizzying, life-changing power of first love.
The novel of the American in Europe has a long and lustrous pedigree. Now Martha McPhee joins the ranks of its most impressive practitioners.
Synopsis
A first kiss, do you remember? Gentle at first, his lips exploring every curve of her neck, then hungry, then greedy. . . . "Tu sei perfetta
," Cesare whispered into her ear, and his words became all of her body.Cesare is a cosseted Italian boy, raised in the weathy town where his family has lived for 500 years. Beth is an ambitious American dreamer, born to hippies and raised on a rural commune. In the brilliant sunshine of a small Greek island they meet - and begin a transforming love affair that spans two continents, two decades, and two lifetimes. As their passion struggles against the pull of culture and country, their story unfolds against the backdrop of a lush Italian landscape and the thrumming streets of New York, catalyzed by the events of September 11th. A sensuous immersion in place, an acute exploration of the divide between old world and new, L'AMERICA is also and above all an evocation of the dizzying, life-changing power of first love.
The novel of an American in Europe has a long and lustrous pedigree: With this dreamily exquisite story Martha McPhee joins the ranks of its most impressive practitioners.
About the Author
McPhee received an MFA from Columbia University.