Siracusa

Starred review from May 2, 2016
Ephron (Sister Mother Husband Dog (etc.)) undertakes a seductive and edgy dissection of two imploding marriages—and an unhinged mother-daughter alliance—alternately narrated by two ex-lovers who recount how a lifetime of small disappointments and delusions leads them to share a twisted secret. Ephron builds the mesmerizing suspense around Lizzie, a journalist, and Finn, a restaurateur, now each unhappily married: Lizzie to famed and flamed-out author Michael, and Finn to controlling and insecure Taylor. The couples’ shared vacation in Italy, which includes Finn and Taylor’s shy and manipulative 10-year-old daughter, Snow, unravels like a Greek tragedy in Siracusa, where Michael’s mistress shows up to force his breakup with Lizzie. Each of these toxic relationships puts the characters on course to careen headlong into a dark place of deceit and rage in Ephron’s brilliant takedown of marital and familial pretense. “Husbands and wives collaborate, hiding even from themselves who is calling the shots and who is along for the ride,” Lizzie says at the outset of her narrative. At its end, she marvels “at the person I turned out to be.” Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit.

May 15, 2016
A sojourn in a Sicilian village sorely tests the relationships of two couples. Ephron's fourth novel is clearly being told in retrospect by each of the four middle-aged tourists whose lives have exploded in a manner not revealed until the end. It starts innocuously enough, as an ironic travelogue about American sophisticates abroad, first in Rome and then in the ancient coastal town of Siracusa. Finn and Taylor, from Portland, Maine, and their Botticelli-blonde 10-year-old, Snow, are traveling with their New York friends Lizzie, a magazine writer, and her novelist husband, Michael. Finn, a restaurateur, and Lizzie had a fling years ago that still resonates with each of them. Taylor, an heiress who dabbles in the tourism industry, is mainly concerned about Snow, who suffers from "extreme shyness syndrome." Snow is captivated by Michael, who clearly knows how to flatter females of all ages. He's currently enmeshed in an affair with a younger woman, Kath, a hostess at his and Lizzie's favorite Italian eatery back home. Lizzie chalks Michael's aloofness up to his novel in progress based on Stendhal's The Red and the Black. From Rome, Michael frantically texts and emails Kath, receiving no response. None, that is, until the group arrives in Siracusa and Kath turns up at their hotel, ostensibly by coincidence. By this time Michael had given up on Kath and Lizzie was heartened by her husband's renewed attentiveness. The situation begins to resemble a Ford Madox Ford novel, with each narrator recounting and interpreting the same encounters from vastly differing perspectives. Finn resents Michael for his casual callousness toward Lizzie, Michael is torn between two women. (Under duress, he buys Kath a gaudy ring.) Taylor detests their no-star hotel, and Lizzie fails to suspect anything even when she sees Kath wearing a man's shirt identical to Michael's and carrying a copy of The Red and the Black. As the clues pile up, the coming storm is expertly foreshadowed--but when it arrives, it's utterly surprising.

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June 1, 2016

The author, the late Nora Ephron's lesser-known sister with similar interests (rom-coms and humor essays), releases this light novel just in time for summer. It follows two wealthy married couples on holiday in Italy. They are childless New York writers Michael and Lizzie, and Lizzie's ex, Finn, with his wife, Taylor, and their unusual ten-year-old daughter, Snow. Told in first person, the narrative switches among the four points of view, which doesn't do these shallow, neurotic individuals any favors. Lizzie and Taylor are supposedly friends but are very judgmental of each other's behavior. Lizzie and Finn's long-dead romance is rekindled, and Michael is having an affair with a younger woman who follows them to Italy with disastrous results. VERDICT This could be a quick beach read for those interested in romantic suspense or travel writing, as long as they don't mind the cast of unlikable characters. [See Prepub Alert, 2/1/16.]--Kate Gray, Boston P.L., MA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016
Best-selling Ephron (The Lion Is In, 2012) introduces two friendlyish families: Manhattan literati Michael and Lizzie, and hipster Maine chef Finn and his uptight wife, and helicopter mother, Taylor, and their preternaturally silent daughter, Snow. She then sends them on vacation together in Italy, a trip that strains their companionship to the point of destruction, dissolves one marriage, and ends the life of one young woman at the hand of another. Lizzie has sensed Michael's distraction for some time but attributed it to his stalled next novel. In truth, Michael has become infatuated with a waitress, who sees more in their relationship than mere physical attraction. Taylor is obsessed with her 10-year-old daughter, overprotective to a suffocating degree and disdainful of her husband's lack of involvement. When Michael's lover suddenly appears during their stay in Sicily, his deception is exposed. A master of precise and keen character development, a virtuoso of pacing and surprise, a wizard at skewering convention and expectation, Ephron offers a bewitching take on relationshipsmarital, parental, casual, and seriousin this read-in-one-sitting, escapist escapade with a message.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)