"Emilia arrives in Rome reeling from heartbreak and reckoning with her past. What was supposed to be a romantic trip has, with the sudden end of a relationship, become a solitary one instead. As she wanders, music, art, food, and the beauty of Rome's wide piazzas and narrow streets color Emilia's dreamy, but weighty experience of the city. She considers the many facets of her life, drifting in and out of memory, following her train of thought wherever...

"An urgent, exciting, fiercely intelligent debut novel that goes deep inside the daily lives of two women--one in Rome, the other in North Carolina--to tell a story about the powerful interconnections, both personal and political, unseen and inexorable, that exist beneath the surface of our troubled world. For years, Amira--a recent convert to Islam living in Rome--has gone to work, said her prayers, and struggled to piece together her husband's redacted...

"Recent Yale philosophy grad and late-bloomer, Alice, wants to find a way to be close to her boyfriend in Paris, with enough space to sow a few oats. Rome fits, so off she goes. Her goals? To have some fun, find a muse, make art, start a life. Instead, she finds herself a muse to a series of men--a pushy TV-host dwarf, lonely banker, alcoholic playboy, bondage-obsessed prince, and the disillusioned Oscar-winning film director, Frank Colucci. The middle-aged...