The Bay of Noon

Long out of print, Shirley Hazzard's classic novel of love and memory

A young Englishwoman working in Naples, Jenny comes to Italy fleeing a history that threatened to undo her. Alone in the fabulously ruined city, she idly follows up a letter of introduction from an acquaintance and so changes her life forever. Through the letter, she meets Giocanda, a beautiful and gifted writer, and Gianni, a famous Roman film director and Giocanda's lover. At work she encounters Justin, a Scotsman whose inscrutability Jenny finds mysteriously attractive. As she becomes increasingly involved in the lives of these three, she discovers that the past--and the patterns of a lifetime--are not easily discarded.

Born in Sydney, Australia, Shirley Hazzard (1931-2016) lived in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Italy, and the United States. She is the author of the acclaimed novel, The Transit of Venus (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award), as well as several other works of fiction, and most recently a memoir of Graham Greene, Green on Capri.