Shirley Hazzard

Moving and evocative, these ten stories are written with subtlety, humour, and a keen understanding of the relationships between men and women.

During a stay in the Italian countryside Sophie, half-English, half-Italian, embarks on a love affair with Tancredi, who is separated from his wife and family. The placid surface of polite Italian society is punctured to reveal some intense yearnings and surprising responses.

In the aftermath of World War II men and women throughout Europe and Asia start to rebuild their lives. In Japan an English soldier assesses the impact of the defeat and the occupation, whilst a young Australian woman tends to her dying brother. Some explicit sexual content.

The author and her husband met Graham Greene in the 1960's and a strong friendship developed. Here she describes aspects of Greene's character and work.

Caro and Grace are Australian sisters who come to post-war England to seek their fortunes. Here Caro finds that love brings passion, sorrow, betrayal and finally hope, while Grace seeks fulfilment in an apparently happy marriage. But as the decades pass, love, death and two slow-burning secrets wait in ambush for them.

Lonely and rootless Jenny finds herself in Naples after the war. Here her close friendship with the talented Gioconda expands to make room for a dour Scotsman and for Gioconda’s lover, Gianni.