Kate Caterina - Tapa blanda

A compelling psychological drama...deeply moving...a remarkable achievement' -- Frank Egerton, Spectator 'I was amazed that his last novel, ECHOES OF WAR, won no prizes...I shall not only be amazed, but shocked, disgusted, and dismayed if KATE CATERINA is no more successful...It's a novel to lose yourself in; and when you have done so, you will find you have deepened your knowledge of other people, and perhaps of yourself. Read it and revel in it and be moved by it' -- Allan Massie, Scotsman There have been books about families torn apart in England and Germany but few, if any, about the Italian connection...this novel, coming on the back of the highly acclaimed ECHOES OF WAR, should help establish him as one of our most perceptive and engaging writers' -- Martin Barsby, Eastern Daily Press 'Caterina's chameleon personality is absorbing...The intense, closed world that the author has created holds wider truths. His writing is infused with a love of Italy and its people, but he unambiguously exposes the complicity of many ordinary people with Mussolini's regime' -- Ben Sheppard, Daily Express 'an engrossing novel ... much of it carries powerful emotional force; the narrative has great pace and positively bounds along, carrying the reader in its wake; the plotting never seems artificial; and the climax .. is both surprising, shocking and affecting...My feeling is that a great many people will enjoy his novel hugely - and that it would make a superb film' -- David McLaurin, The Tablet 'an ambitious and absorbing project.' -- Elizabeth Buchan, The Times

When Kate Fenn marries a young Italian medical student in London in the mid-thirties she finds herself, as Caterina d'Alessandria, in Tuscany when World War II breaks out. With her brother and brother-in-law in opposing armies, a husband imprisoned for his anti-Fascist activities and a small daughter to protect, Kate Caterina struggles to hold on to her sense of identity and her faith in a better future. A story of love, sacrifice and betrayal which gives a striking impression of what it was like to live through the war, and especially the civil war, in Italy.