THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Missiroli cuts right through to the darkness of our inner lives' Roberto Saviano 'You'll feel like taking refuge in the pages of this book and never leaving its confines' La Stampa Carlo, a part-time professor of creative writing, and Margherita, an architect-turned-real estate-agent: a happily married couple in their mid-thirties, perfectly attuned to each other's restlessness. They are in love, but they also harbour desires that stray beyond the confines of their bedroom: Carlo longs for the quiet beauty of one of his students, Sofia, Margherita fantasises about the strong hands of her physiotherapist, Andrea.The dream of a new flat, suspended between the old cobbled streets of Milan and the modern skyline cutting the horizon, might just help Carlo and Margherita bring down the wall Sofia and Andrea have built between them. But it is love, with its unassuming power, which ultimately pulls them from the brink, aided by Margherita's mother Anna, the couple's anchor and lighthouse - a wise, proud seamstress hiding her own disappointments. But after eight years of repressed desires and the birth of a son, when the past resurfaces in the form of books sent anonymously, not even Anna might be strong enough to save them. Winner of the Premio Strega Giovani - Shortlisted for the Premio Strega