The Etruscan

Description

In Lappin’s prize-winning, literary gothic tale, the tantalizing love story between American heroine Harriet Sacket and the enigmatic Count Federigo, self-proclaimed Etruscan spirit, is played out in 1922 against the backdrop of eerie Etruscan tombs, boar-infested woods, and elegant Tuscan villas. The Etruscan recounts the adventures of Harriet Sackett, trouser-wearing American photographer who travels to Italy to photograph Etruscan tombs for the Theosophical Society. Here she falls in love with the charismatic Federigo del Re, occultist , amateur archaeologist, and shape-shifter, but her increasing fascination with the man will leave her on the brink of collapse. The story is told from the viewpoint of Harriet’s English cousins, Stephen and Sarah, whose own dark secrets are revealed as they read the diary Harriet has kept of her obsession, trying to understand what has transpired. As the unraveling of Harriet’s mind is revealed, so too are the secrets of Harriet’s family- secrets which are no less disturbing than those revealed in her diary. The mystery at the heart of Harriet’s experience draws the reader on: who is Federigo del Re, the man she calls “her secret sun”? Noble lover, unscrupulous conman, Etruscan ghost, village shaman, or simply the product of Harriet’s delusion? Lappin keeps the suspense pulled taut till the very last page. Readers traveling to Italy this summer or just lounging at home dreaming of Tuscany can lose themselves in the Etruscan woods of Lappin’s lush landscapes.

 

Linda Lappin, the author of two prize-winning novels, The Etruscan and Katherine’s Wish, was born in Kingsport, Tennessee. She received her B.A. from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and her MFA from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop where she also worked as a translation assistant to the International Writing Program. A former Fulbright fellow to Italy, she currently divides her time between the US and Italy, where she has taught English in Italian universities for over twenty years. Her essays, reviews, and short fiction appear regularly in US periodicals. Her short fiction has been broadcast by the BBC World Service Radio. She is at work on a second Daphne Dublanc mystery novel, Melusine, set in Bolsena and on a memoir, entitled Postcards from a Tuscan Interior. Find out more at https://www.lindalappin.net

 

Other books by Linda Lappin: The Soul of Place: A Creative Writing Workbook, Public Lettering: Script, Power, and Culture, Katherine’s Wish, Signatures in Stone, Loving Modigliani

 

First Edition Accolades, 2004:

Book of the Week –The Irish Emigrant, July 4 2004

“Think Fifty Shades of… but fifty times better written.” –Margaret Bramley, Bookcrossing.com

“Pan dances more deeply in The Etruscan than he does in Lawrence’s Etruscan Places.” –Mel Ulm, The Reading Life

“I was enthralled by Lappin’s Italy… and by that god/demon/boar that flits through its landscape.” –Nina Auerbach, critic, author of Our Vampires, Ourselves

“A wonderful achievement” –David Lynn, editor, the Kenyon Review

“Haunting and evocative” –David Masello, editor Country Living

“A tale like a labyrinth” –Andrew Frisardi

“I really couldn’t put it down” –Charles Wright

“A wonderful and captivating read” –The Megalithic Portal

“An intelligent, atmospheric novel with finely drawn characters and beautiful language and style. It is not easy to put down…this artfully-written novel inhabits a supernatural landscape… Lappin’s gift for atmosphere places her among the finest writers of gothic art.” –Southern Indiana Review

“An extraordinary feat” –Susan Tiberghien, Jungian lecturer, author of Looking for Gold: a Year in Jungian Analysis

“A real page-turner” –Kathryn Lang, senior editor Southern Methodist University Press

“A writer to watch” -David Applefield, editor of Frank

“A powerful first novel” –Thomas E. Kennedy author of The Copenhagen Quartet

“… Gothic in the grand style–darkly mysterious, psychologically acute, emotionally subtle.” –Thomas Wilhelmus, The Hudson Review