Synopses & Reviews
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.
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
"[A] heartbreaker of a book about everyday people made extraordinary by love. Sensuous and evocative." WashingtonPost
Review
"Ambitious and literate." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
McPhee received an MFA from Columbia University.