Divorced, alone, and unexpectedly unemployed, Sylvia Landsman flees to Italy, where she meets Henry, a wistful, married, middle-aged expatriate. Taking off on a grand tour of Europe bankrolled with his wife's money, Henry and Sylvia follow a circuitous route around the continent--as Sylvia entertains Henry with stories of her peculiar family and her damaged friends, of dead ducks and Alma Mahler. Her narrative is a tapestry of remembrances and regrets...and her secret shame: a small, cowardly sin of omission. Yet when the opportunity arises for Sylvia and Henry to do something small but brave, the refrain "if only" returns to haunt her, leaving Sylvia with one more story of love lived and lost.

Author: Binnie Kirshenbaum
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: 05/12/2009
Series: P.S.
Pages: 352
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.44w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780060784744


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/15/2009 pg. 95
Publishers Weekly 03/16/2009 pg. 36
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2009
Booklist 04/15/2009 pg. 24
Time 07/13/2009 pg. 58

About the Author
Kirshenbaum, Binnie: -

Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of An Almost Perfect Moment, On Mermaid Avenue, A Disturbance in One Place, Pure Poetry, Hester Among the Ruins, and History on a Personal Note. She is a professor at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she is chair of the Graduate Writing Program.