From the author of The Gustav Sonata

A stunning collection of stories: wide-reaching in subject and setting, each beautifully evoked and brilliantly imagined.

Renowned opera singer Antonio Mollini begins construction on what he hopes will be the most beautiful garden in Italy, unaware that its development will have tragic consequence for both him, and his series of lovers. Elsewhere, a farmer's son has high hopes for his inheritance, a young girl dreams of following in the footsteps of a famous arsonist, and the pressure of the annual Gardening Cup exerts a heavy toll on seventeen-year-old Dougie.

Over a million Rose Tremain books sold

`A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I

`There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times

`Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times

`Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie

`Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian