American photographer, Harriet Sackett, travels to Italy in 1922 to capture images of ancient Etruscan tombs. There, she falls for Count Federigo, a mysterious and charismatic figure who-jokingly-claims to be an Etruscan spirit. As her obsession with him grows, Harriet's mental state begins to unravel, leading to a series of dark discoveries. The story is told through the perspective of her English cousins, who read Harriet's diary to uncover the truth about Federigo. Is Harriet's lover a conman, a ghost, or a figment of Harriet's imagination? Romance and intrigue unfold amid Tuscan villas and eerie Etruscan landscapes in this prize-winning gothic novel. "... Gothic in the grand style-darkly mysterious, psychologically acute, emotionally subtle." -Tom Wilhelmus, longtime fiction critic for the Hudson Review. Pleasure Boat Studio is proud to announce the first US print & paperback edition of Linda Lappin's tantalizing debut novel, reminiscent of John Fowles' The Magus.
