sizzling ! Helen Bonaparte

Miranda July meets Jess Walter's gorgeous Ruins in this dreamy literary gem with a razor-sharp edge and "almost painterly" (BookLife), mesmeric prose.

*BookLife 2024 Prize Finalist*

Middle-aged, middling academic Helen Bonaparte has left her husband and children at home for a week-long Italian group tour with a bunch of strangers. Craving solitude, she intends to sulk in the corners of buses and museums for a week, indulging in superb art but scowling the rest of the world away.

Until, that is, she meets Marieke, the tour guide, who becomes the object of erotic fantasies Helen didn't even know she had, and currently can't keep at bay-to the point of distraction.

As each day passes, Helen's home life recedes, only to be replaced with increasingly bizarre, invasive, and secretive ways to secure closer to Marieke. Helen lives in a breathless state suspense, hungry for Marieke's approval, devouring every brush of the hand or unassuming gaze. She switches their forks, steals Marieke's scarf, lis