Books: Armchair Travel: Home

Paul Stuart is navigating romantic complications while writing his latest cookbook before finding his fortunes tangled up with those of an infamous restaurant in the French countryside.

After finding an abandoned handbag on the street, a Parisian bookseller endeavors to find its owner, the woman whose jottings he discovers in a red notebook within the bag.

A tale set against a backdrop of the late-19th-century construction of the Eiffel Tower follows the romantic relationship between a widow whose precarious financial situation forces her to chaperone two wealthy Scottish charges and a bourgeois family businessman who must marry a suitable wife.

tale inspired by a little-known interlude follows the 1936 culinary affair between a reclusive Picasso at a crossroads in his life and a rebellious teen from the French Riviera, a relationship that shapes the life of the girl's granddaughter in New York more than half a century later.

The Dud Avocado follows the romantic and comedic adventures of a young American who heads overseas to conquer Paris in the late 1950s.

When her husband announces he is leaving her for another woman, Lara Lewis decides to proceed with a planned second honeymoon to France, revisiting all the stops on her first wedding trip – this time with a man she barely knows.

A single day in Paris changes the lives of three Americans as they each set off to explore the city with a French tutor, learning about language, love, and loss as their lives intersect in surprising ways.

When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. War is declared as the priest denounces the newcomer's wares as the ultimate sin.

A collection of eight short stories is complemented by a novella in which a young woman abandoned during a romantic mini- vacation gathers the courage to embark on an independent tour of Paris.

An artist lost to history, a family abandoned to its secrets, and the woman whose search for meaning unearths it all in a sweeping and expressive story from the New York Times bestselling author of Letters from Paris.

When her eccentric novelist husband disappears, leaving behind nothing but a hidden pair of plane tickets to Paris, Leah relocates to France and takes ownership of a small bookstore, where she discovers clues in an unfinished manuscript.

From his floating bookstore along the Seine, the Literary Apothecary, Jean Perdu intuits the perfect book to heal whatever heartbreak afflicts his customer-patients.

Bankrupted by her infamous litigator husband's tabloid death, a scandal-fearing widow flees New York for Paris, where her deadbeat son and she navigate near-comic self-destructive choices.

Adrift in a soccer-obsessed seaside village on the Italian Riviera, a young man who has recently lost his mother and brother struggles to bond with his emotionally absent father before being drawn into the world of a scandalous soccer star and his tough-love sister.

Arriving in 1956 Tuscany, newlyweds Scottie and Michael find their sensoryvexperiences in the ancient city overshadowed by dark secrets, the
disappearance of a troubled teen and unsettling revelations about their roles in a dangerous political game.

A grandfather, used to living in solitude and obsessively focusing on his illustrating career,and his 4-year-old grandson match wits during a 72-hour babysitting stay in Naples.

My Brilliant Friend
The Story of a New Name
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
The Story of the Lost Child
Ferrante’s Neopolitan novels follows the friendship of Elena and Lina over the decades from childhood through adulthood.

The novel follows the adolescent Arturo through his days on the isolated Neapolitan island of Procida, where—his mother long deceased, his father often absent, and a dog as his sole companion—he roams the countryside and the beaches or reads in his family’s lonely, dilapidated mansion.

"As the heir to a proud Northern Italian ice-cream dynasty, Giovanni Calamine’s family is none too happy when he decides to break with tradition and travel the world as a notable poet. So when Giovanni receives an unexpected call from his brother, he is faced with a difficult decision: return home to serve in his family’s interests or continue on his own path in life once and for all?"

Four American expats and strangers become unexpected friends during a magical year in Tuscany marked by a writer's complicated relationship with the subject of her biography, long-postponed dreams and shifting senses of adventure and bravery.

In these brilliantly realized, linked tales, the real Venice is revealed; not the iconic tourist destination the city has become, but the mysterious society that resides behind its elegant doors and shuttered windows.

Rosa is the only girl from a rural Sicilian
family. After losing her true love at a young
age, she moves to the big city and loses her love of food and of life. Years later, a mysterious man reawakens her to both.

Three couples, including an inspiration-seeking art student and her fiancé, a DIY couple whose home makeover needs mirror their marriage and a pair of best friend sisters-in-law who would scatter the ashes of a loved one, are drawn to the culture and allure of Rome in a tale told from the viewpoint of the city itself.

One relentlessly hot summer, six children explore the scorched wheat fields that enclose their tiny Italian village. When the gang find a dilapidated farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano makes a discovery so momentous that he dare not tell a soul. It is a secret that will force Michele to question everything and everyone around him, and will bring his innocent world toppling down. An unputdownable thriller, I'm Not Scared has become a contemporary classic in Italian literature, read and celebrated the world over.

This novel, exploring issues of identity in
modern Sicily, presents the complicated life of Maria Rosalia Inzerillo, a woman born into poverty in Sicily, who becomes the
invaluable servant of a wealthy family.

Follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the
reporters and editors of an English-language newspaper in Rome.

This is widely regarded as one of the best works by the winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize for Literature. Beginning on the eve of the Spanish Civil War, San Camilo, 1936 follows a twenty-year-old student's attempts to sort out his private affairs (sex, money, career) in the midst of the turmoil overtaking his country.

In this powerful, labyrinthian thriller, David Martín is a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat. Holed up in a haunting abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, he furiously taps out story after story, becoming increasingly desperate and frustrated. Thus, when he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real, David leaps at the chance.

From the Hollywood Hills to the streets of Barcelona, from lush vineyards and wineries to the most exclusive homes in Europe, let Elizabeth Adler take you on a journey with a story that will hold you spellbound. Bibi Fortunata was the hottest ticket in town: singer, actress, and celebrity. Two years ago she was arrested on suspicion of murdering her lover and his new mistress, who was also Bibi's best friend.

"Delicious . . . richly riveting . . . The Vacationers offers all the delights of a fluffy, read-it-with-sunglasses-on-the-beach read, made substantial by the exceptional wit, insight, intelligence and talents of its author."--People Celebrating their thirty-fifth anniversary and their daughter's high-school graduation during a two-week vacation in Mallorca, Franny and Jim Post confront old secrets, hurts, and rivalries that reveal sides of themselves they try to conceal.

When Samuel, a lonely linguistics lecturer, wakes up on New Year's Day, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing more than passive verbs and un-italicized moments--until an unexpected visitor slips into his Barcelona apartment and refuses to leave. The appearance of Mishima, a stray, brindle-furred cat, becomes the catalyst that leads Samuel from the comforts of his favorite books, foreign films, and classical music to places he's never been.

Each day before work María Dolz stops at the same café. There she finds herself drawn to a couple who is also there every morning. Observing their seemingly perfect life helps her escape the listlessness of her own. But when the man is brutally murdered and María approaches the widow to offer her condolences, what began as mere observation turns into an increasingly complicated entanglement. .

Chloe needs a holiday. She's sick of making wedding dresses, her partner Philip has troubles at work, and the whole family wants a break. Her wealthy friend Gerard has offered the loan of his luxury villa in Spain--perfect. Hugh is not a happy man. His immaculate wife Amanda seems more interested in her new kitchen than in him, and he works so hard to pay for it, he barely has time for his children. Maybe he'll have a chance to bond with them on holiday. His old friend Gerard has lent them a luxury villa in Spain--perfect. Both families arrive at the villa and realize the awful truth--Gerard has double-booked.

A surprise trip to Barcelona with her boyfriend, Jake, seems like the perfect antidote to Grace Sawyer's current woes. The city is dazzling and unpredictable, but the biggest surprise for Grace is discovering who arranged and paid for the vacation.

A romantic page-turner propelled by the sixty-year secret that has shaped two families, four lovers, and one seaside resort community. Set against dramatic Mediterranean Sea views and lush olive groves, The Rocks opens with a confrontation and a secret: What was the mysterious, catastrophic event that drove two honeymooners apart so suddenly and absolutely in 1948 that they never spoke again despite living on the same island for sixty more years?