"In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry's last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of...

"Emilia arrives in Rome reeling from heartbreak and reckoning with her past. What was supposed to be a romantic trip has, with the sudden end of a relationship, become a solitary one instead. As she wanders, music, art, food, and the beauty of Rome's wide piazzas and narrow streets color Emilia's dreamy, but weighty experience of the city. She considers the many facets of her life, drifting in and out of memory, following her train of thought wherever...

An under-cover Roman policeman ravaged by guilt meets a woman on the run from her past. Every Monday and Thursday, Roberto Marías crosses Rome on foot for his appointment with his psychiatrist. There he sits in silence, flooded by memories of a past that has left him devastated. A chance meeting with a woman named Emma, also ravaged by a profound guilt, begin to painfully revive him.

Two early novels first published in 1926 and in 1930 respectively, marking the debut of a new American stylist according to contemporary reviews.