The Italian

Summary

Lewis Sinclaire’s earliest memory is that wherein his mother kisses him on the forehead and wishes him a happy birthday on the very day that she abandoned him. He never saw her again, but the memory is a happy one, nonetheless. But is a memory a true facsimile of what actually happened? During the lockdown of Spring 2020, Lewis, a restauranteur by trade, is forced to isolate with his dying father in the family home that he has despised all of his life. He is determined to use the time wisely, and over a game of chess and fuelled by a strong Irish Whiskey, he discovers that a memory is not the truth. He discovers precisely what went on between his mother and his father at the family villa in Le Marche, Italy, in nineteen-eighty-four, and why his mother had to abandon him. Then, at his father’s ‘lockdown’ funeral, a stranger appears, who changes his mind completely…..