Rhys Bowen’s The Tuscan Child is #8 on Amazon’s Most Sold list. Coming from an acclaimed New York Times author, I had high expectations from this book. Books set in war times are my favorite. So I set my never ending work aside one weekend and settled down to read this book. Checkout my The Tuscan Child book review and share your thoughts about the book and the author.
Rhys Bowen is a New York Times bestselling author. She has won the Agatha Award for Best Novel and has been nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, among numerous other awards and nominations. Bowen was born in Bath, England, studied at London University, married into a family with historic royal connections, and now divides her time between Northern California and Arizona.
The Tuscan Child
Author: Rhys Bowen
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (February 20, 2018)
ISBN: 1503951812, ISBN-13: 978-1503951815
The Tuscan Child Book Review
Joanna Langley has recently gone through a bad time. She learns her father, Sir Hugo has passed away and goes to the family seat – Langley Hall. She finds an old letter in his effects and sets off on a quest to a remote village in Tuscany.
The Tuscan Child book alternates between Joanna’s exploits in the 1970s and Hugo’s fate in the 1940s during war time. The Tuscan village is a small knit community with a tyrant lord. There are secrets and Joanna’s presence is not desirable. Joanna uncovers mysteries old and new while narrowly escaping death.
Joanna’s personal trauma does not get too much space in the book. It’s hinted at and then explained pretty quickly. Hugo Langley has a dual character. He grew up without love and affection and apparently he raised his daughter in the same cold English way. But we find he was a passionate man. He found love not once but twice. Why did he still become such a curmudgeon? Joanna herself feels apathy toward the village she grew up in. But she immediately becomes enamored of the small Tuscan village she visits, and the people living in it. The reader will be left wondering why.
The Tuscan Child book will keep you in anticipation for a long time. Will it reward you with a juicy solution? That’s for you to decide when you read it.
The Tuscan Child Summary
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.
Nearly thirty years later, Hugo’s estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father’s funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
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