Caught in a net of her own lies?
Clare Livingston, botanical artist,
... and Amazon explorer?
Or does the truth of her Amazon adventures really matter, if her paintings of endangered species bring more important truths to light?
Clare has managed to avoid asking herself such questions -- until, unexpectedly, she inherits her uncle’s property in Tuscany. Then more questions loom from her past.
She travels to the hill town of Cortona, fearful of the meaning of this inheritance from the man who fled his family when she was barely a teen. Yet she aches to find some trace of him.
Instead she is swept up in a world of archaeological intrigue as two men pursue her with agendas of their own; and the little lies she can’t help scattering lead her deeper along a twisting path, until even her ability to paint is threatened: the only real truth of her life.
Set against a landscape whose hills still shelter secrets from Etruscan times, The Whirling Girl explores the layered nature of desire, and asks what really are the conditions that foster art, or love -- or the telling of the earth’s long story.
Clare Livingston, botanical artist,
... and Amazon explorer?
Or does the truth of her Amazon adventures really matter, if her paintings of endangered species bring more important truths to light?
Clare has managed to avoid asking herself such questions -- until, unexpectedly, she inherits her uncle’s property in Tuscany. Then more questions loom from her past.
She travels to the hill town of Cortona, fearful of the meaning of this inheritance from the man who fled his family when she was barely a teen. Yet she aches to find some trace of him.
Instead she is swept up in a world of archaeological intrigue as two men pursue her with agendas of their own; and the little lies she can’t help scattering lead her deeper along a twisting path, until even her ability to paint is threatened: the only real truth of her life.
Set against a landscape whose hills still shelter secrets from Etruscan times, The Whirling Girl explores the layered nature of desire, and asks what really are the conditions that foster art, or love -- or the telling of the earth’s long story.
Some advance praise for The Whirling Girl
“Sexy and sophisticated, The Whirling Girl is a fairytale for grownups. The hero, rich and besotted, lives in a castle; the setting, golden Tuscany, is bewitching; the adventure, a search for Etruscan treasure, is exhilarating. But it’s the sly, wry heroine -- lovely and messy and flawed and true -- who provides the real enchantment, undermining our expectations and exceeding them at the same time.”
Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean.
“Written with the grace of a seasoned and confident writer ... I was entirely transported to Tuscany and embroiled in the book’s many twists and turns, turning each page with increased curiosity. Barbara Lambert has created a genre-defying gem.”
Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo.
“Sexy and sophisticated, The Whirling Girl is a fairytale for grownups. The hero, rich and besotted, lives in a castle; the setting, golden Tuscany, is bewitching; the adventure, a search for Etruscan treasure, is exhilarating. But it’s the sly, wry heroine -- lovely and messy and flawed and true -- who provides the real enchantment, undermining our expectations and exceeding them at the same time.”
Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean.
“Written with the grace of a seasoned and confident writer ... I was entirely transported to Tuscany and embroiled in the book’s many twists and turns, turning each page with increased curiosity. Barbara Lambert has created a genre-defying gem.”
Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo.
