For how thy memory has lingered on
In spite of cruelest winter s drear and howl
By inner mirror seen; I ve dwelled upon,
I must confess, my treachery most foul.
Did Shakespeare pen a series of passionate sonnets, unknown to modern
scholarship, ardently praising a mysterious dark-haired beauty? This
tantalizing question is raised in a letter to literature professor Rose
Asher. But the letter s author, Rose s star pupil, is not telling. A
troubled, enigmatic young man, he plunged to his death in front of the
college s entire faculty, an apparent suicide. Determined to find the
truth, Rose journeys from New York to Italy, back to the magnificent
Tuscan villa where as an undergraduate she first fell in love.
La Civetta is a dreamlike place, resplendent with the heady scent of
lemon trees and the sunset s ocher wash across its bricks and cobbles.
Once there Rose finds her first love still in residence. Torn between
her mission and her rekindled feelings, Rose becomes enmeshed in a
treacherous tangle of secrets and scandal. A folio containing what some
believe to be one of Shakespeare s lost sonnets has vanished, and
literary immortality awaits whoever finds the manuscript as do a vast
Italian estate and a Hollywood movie deal. Uncertain whom she can trust
and where she can turn, Rose races against time and unseen enemies in a
bid to find the missing masterpiece.
Lush, lyrical, and enthralling, The Sonnet Lover vividly brings to life
the Tuscan countryside and the fascinating world of the Renaissance
poets. Unmatched in her ability to evoke atmosphere and intrigue, Carol
Goodman delivers her most ambitious and satisfying work to date, a
seductive novel that skillfully propels its reader headlong to the final
suspenseful page.
From the Hardcover edition."
