Synopses & Reviews
In her delightful reimagining of
A Midsummer's Night Dream, Amanda Craig slyly serves up a witty cross-cultural farce, a modern-day tale of love and lies set against the magical landscape of Tuscany.
When Theo, a workaholic lawyer, his English wife Polly, and their two children rent an idyllic Italian villa, they expect a relaxing summer holiday together. Polly, with her loved ones' romantic interests at heart, has invited an eccentric mix of friends and family along including three eligible bachelors, a former model, an Indian-British divorcee with a young son, and her own appalling mother-in-law. They soon discover the Casa Luna is a strange, enchanted place where people find their heart's desire but at a price. Everyone falls in love, though not with the people they expect, and the results are surprising and hilarious.
Review
"Amanda Craig is a marvelous writer both playful and graceful, she gives darting sidelong glances into the human heart. Love in Idleness is the perfect summer read. Escapist in the best sense, it suggests that we may need to get lost in order to find ourselves." Allison Pearson, author of I Don't Know How She Does It
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"Beguiling, very funny....Craig writes with charm and wit." The New Yorker
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"With slapstick confusion, magic potions, and Shakespearean references galore....[It] manages to surprise in a way old Will never dreamed of." Entertainment Weekly
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"Sharp dialogue, smart lines, well-timed revelations...all in all, a pleasing, evocative, weightless performance." The Washington Post
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"A social comedy with a hint of magic....An entertaining and good-hearted summer read by someone who knows, and loves, her Shakespeare." Seattle Times
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"Sprawling and sweet, Craig traces how romantic, platonic, and familial relationships change over time." Elle
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"Carefully plotted, its prose sharp, its characters nicely, sometimes mischievously, observed....Enjoyable and clever." The Independent (London)
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"Craig's creative enough to stray from Shakespeare when the need arises, and her lyrical prose suits the Italian landscapes." Orlando Sentinel
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"Charming....Craig, a compassionate and good-tempered fairy godmother waving her wand, presides wisely and kindly over the comedy of errors."
The New StatesmanAbout the Author
Amanda Craig is the author of Foreign Bodies, A Private Place, A Vicious Circle, and, most recently, In a Dark Wood. She lives in London and writes regularly for the Times, the Sunday Times, and the New Statesman.