Lost Hearts in Italy

May 29, 2006
Lee's elegantly structured novel about a love affair that destroys a young couple's marriage unfolds through the individual perspectives of the wife, the husband, and the interloper, shifting back in forth between the mid-1980s and two decades later. Recent Harvard grads Mira Ward, an African American travel writer from Philadelphia, and Nick Reiver, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Yankee, are thrilled by Nick's transfer to his investment firm's Italian arm. On her flight to Rome, Mira meets Zenin, an older parvenu Venetian tycoon. She deflects him at first, but eventually, it is Zenin's cultural pride and air of ownership more than his yacht or private jet that seduce Mira-even after she gives birth to Nick's daughter, Maddie. The inevitable discovery and ensuing divorce-and Zenin's intransigent refusal to marry Mira or let her bear his child-are less the story than the everlasting effect these few years have on the three "lost hearts" of the title. Lee (Russian Journal) powerfully orchestrates the clash of cultures and wills through the interweaving of her characters' memories, which build in an emotional crescendo that overwhelms the young marriage and collectively becomes the leitmotif for each of them, for the rest of their lives.