City of Belmont - Ruth Faulkner Public Library

The villa, Rosanna Ley

The villa

Rosanna Ley

When Tess Angel receives a letter informing her she has inherited the Villa Sirena, perched on a clifftop in Sicily, she is stunned. Her only link to the small beautiful island is through her mother, Flavia, who left Sicily during World War II and has not spoken to her family, or of her life there, since. Initially resistant to Tess traveling to her home country, Flavia begins to recount her youth, told in flashbacks as she writes in a journal to Tess of her journey to independence, as well as leaving her legacy of cherished family recipes and secrets. Secrets including a lost treasure rumored to be hidden in the very Villa Tess is staying at. Told in alternating points-of-view between Tess, Flavia, and Tess' teenage daughter Ginny, dealing with her blooming sexuality and filled with questions that she longs to ask her long-absent father