“Carmine Abate is a formidable storyteller.”—Le Monde (Paris)

In the years following the Second World War, photographer Hans Heumann travels to southern Italy in search of the light that has long attracted artists. There Heumann meets Giorgio Bellusci, who will accompany him on a journey through southern Italy as he captures the essence of this fabled land in a series of photographs that eventually make him world famous. As Heumann’s stature grows, Bellusci’s dream to rebuild the south’s most famous inn deepens and darkens. The dream slowly becomes a dangerous obsession that will leave Giorgio with blood on his hands and put the two men’s friendship to the test.

With the exuberance of innocence and childlike urgency, the story of Heumann’s fame and Bellusci’s obsession is told through the eyes of Florian—the two men’s grandson, a child of two countries and two cultures that are often at odds, and the unlikely heir to his Italian grandfather’s obsession.

The first of Abate’s novels to appear in English and winner of the Fenice-Europa prize for fiction, this is an exhilarating journey that takes readers to the storied heart of Italy and explores the meaning of memory and the nature of true friendship.

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