Last Train from Liguria

Starred review from May 1, 2011

Thank heavens this UK paperback is getting U.S. distribution! It's Irish author Hickey's (Tatty) fifth novel, a mesmerizing read that transports us to 1930s Italy, where protagonist Bella, a young woman originally from Ireland, is sent to be a governess at the direction of her widowed father, who wants a life without his spinster daughter. Most of the novel is told from the third-person present-tense perspective of Bella. Readers will feel the unhurried rhythms of local and expat life in coastal Bordighera and the growing divide between Italian and foreign sensibilities there, with Mussolini's rise lurking first at the story's edges and then advancing toward its core. Cutting away from this absorbing, meticulously observed narrative are briefer framing sections that take place in Dublin, past and present, told by two other characters. One of these is violent, but for the most part this is a subtle story that grows quietly in power. Hickey shows rather than tells, allowing readers to grasp meanings and import on their own as they follow Bella's relationships with her young charge, Alessandro, and with Edward, an elusive, live-in music teacher. VERDICT A haunting novel that will stay with you long after you've put it down--or urged it upon a friend. It will appeal to readers who have enjoyed the themes of Andrea Levy's or William Boyd's novels.--Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal

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