Cassie McCullough

Well, let's describe, let's bring the listeners into this story and what makes it so powerful.

It's this young woman, Giovanna, or Gianni, as she's sometimes called by her aunt.

She's the daughter of Andrea and Nella.

They live in Naples.

Andrea and Nella are academics, although...

Nella, not so much as Andrea.

He's quite the intellect.

He's into politics and he discusses it endlessly with their friends at night around the dinner table.

Nella is a quieter character.

Her work seems to be predominantly proofreading romance literature.

Which is such a loaded, a loaded profession to give a character, I think.

And Gianna is about 13 years old and one night she hears her parents talking in the kitchen when they think she can't hear and

And they're talking about the fact that Giovanna's grades have fallen at school, which has alarmed them because it's the first time it's ever happened.

And she's listening in to what they're saying.

And her mother, Nella, is saying, look, it's because of all the troubles that she's having with early adolescence and puberty.

And then the father says this thing.

He says, adolescence has nothing to do with it.

She's getting the face of Victoria.

And this sentence is the catalyst for the rest of the novel because Victoria, it turns out, she is the sister of Andrea and they have been estranged for many years.

What a start.