Delia Ephron - Siracusa

Two couples on their trip to Italy. Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, his wife. Both have affairs, Michael with the waitress of their favourite restaurant, Lizzie with Finn, husband of Taylor, father of Snow and lover of Lizzie. The five of them only get along quite awkwardly, but the trip becomes even more catastrophic when Michael's lover Kathy unexpectedly also shows up in Siracusa. All of them want to get rid of their partner - but how to tell them?

The novel is the perfect summer read. The circumstances- an Italian island, stressed people forced together and masses of lies which threaten to come to the light - are ideal for quarrels and accidents. What I liked especially was the fact not to have a narrator but to let the four characters tell the story from their point of view and also commented by each other. In this way you could read the same incident from different perspectives and now and again you were ahead of one of them, nervous to follow the revelation of the lies. Underlying it all was the basic question of how to live your life and what to do when you are unhappy. So besides some rather lightweight summer holiday story, there is also something to think about.