esare is a cosseted Italian boy, raised in a wealthy town where his family has lived for five hundred years. Beth is an ambitious American dreamer born to hippies and raised on a commune. In the brilliant sunshine of a small Greek island they meet—and begin a transforming love affair that spans two continents, two decades, and two lifetimes. As their passion struggles against the pull of culture and country, their story unfolds agains the backdrop of a lush Italian landscape and the thrumming streets of New York, catalyzed by the events of September 11. A sensuous immersion in place, an acute exploration of the divide between old world and new, L’America is above all an evocation of the dizzying, life-changing power of first love.

The novel of an American in Europe has a long and lustrous pedigree. With this dreamily exquisite story, Martha McPhee joins the ranks of its most impressive practitioners.


Also by Martha McPhee

Bright Angel Time 0-15-602934-0 978-0-15-602934-6 Trade Paperback $14.00 "Full of beautiful writing and dead-on observations about the era that spawned broken families and broken hearts-- and shot through with an aching sense of dislocation and adolescent rebellion-- McPhee's saga will haunt anyone who has ever felt lost on even the firmest ground." —Glamour

Gorgeous Lies 0-15-602882-4 978-0-15-602882-0 Trade Paperback $14.00 "In McPhee's hands the mystical meets the matter-of-fact, and the lives and obligation snad connections that make families come alive is deeply evidenced.... A gorgeous book." —Chicago Tribune