Description
Book Synopsis''Effortlessly enjoyable . . . an emotionally rewarding novel so succulent with detail that you can almost feel the Tripoli sand storms whipping across your face'' Daily Mail
The Fourth Shore: the sliver of fertile land along the Tripoli coast, the ''lost'' territory Mussolini promised to reclaim for Italy. Which is how, in 1929, seventeen-year-old Liliana Cattaneo arrives there from Rome on a ship filled with eager colonists to join her brother and his new wife.
Liliana is sure she was on the brink of a great adventure, but what awaits her is not the Mediterranean idyll of cocktail parties, smart dances, dashing officers and romantic intrigues she had imagined. Instead she finds a world of persecution, violence, repression, corruption and deceptions both great and small.
A child of fascist Italy, blown about by the winds of fascism and Catholicism, Liliana becomes enmeshed in a dark liaison which has terrible consequences both for her and those
Trade Review
Effortlessly enjoyable . . . an emotionally rewarding novel so succulent with detail that you can almost feel the Tripoli sand storms whipping across your face * Daily Mail *
Fans of Victoria Hislop will love The Fourth Shore * Good Housekeeping *
As gripping as any thriller . . . crammed with the sort of heart-stopping, heart-breaking scenes that brought a lump to the throat of even this jaded reviewer. Really, really good * Daily Mail, praise for Early One Morning *
A moving assertion of the power of maternal love to overcome unimaginable obstacles * Sunday Times, praise for Early One Morning *
Incredibly sure-footed, a big, generous and absorbing piece of storytelling, fearless, witty and full of flair . . .Even as it forces its characters to lose so much, it asserts itself against those losses with vehemence and hope * Samantha Harvey, Guardian, praise for Early One Morning *
A real treat: a beautifully written account of the long consequences of war, set in a richly evoked Roman of the 1970s * Philip Hensher, Observer, praise for Early One Morning *
Baily subtly tugs at your heartstrings and by the end of her novel you're likely to be as desperate as the women in Daniele's life to discover his fate * Daily Express, praise for Early One Morning *
Heartbreaking . . . a powerful story of sacrifice, despair and ultimately redemption * Sunday Express, praise for Early One Morning *
Wonderful . . . I was completely inside it from the first pages, just that delicious (rare) feeling of knowing you're in safe hands, this writer isn't going to make a mess of anything, or forfeit your trust or your belief. It managed to be so witty and dry and true . . . Vividly intelligent, gripping and moving and alive * Tessa Hadley, praise for Early One Morning *
So effortlessly enjoyable she almost slips into the guilty pleasure category, yet she is also so accomplished there's really nothing to feel guilty about . . . Baily sheds light on a neglected area of pre-war history in ways that are both politically astute and deeply satisfying * Daily Mail *
A wholly enjoyable historical novel * Daily Mail *
