Theculturecafe

I love a good story, it was even better when reading it lying on the beach and enjoying the sunshine over my back. I bought the "Last Train from Liguria" because I liked the title, the cover and the abstract at the back. It took me while to get used to Christine's style and really get into the story, as it develops rather slowly. It gave me the feeling that nothing happened through entire chapters, in a sense it gives the reader some space and time to get attached to the characters. Once you are locked into the story, you just want to flicker through the pages to discover what would happen next and keep going. I hardly wanted to put this book down as I got really attached to its characters.The story takes place in 1939 and focuses on Bella who moves to Italy to tutor the only child of an aristocratic Italian family living in Sicily. As soon as she arrives, she is asked to travel back to Bodigherra on the ligurian Riviera where she can finally meet with Alessandro the boy she is supposed to look after. As the mother of the child is getting less and less involved with her child and his father dies, Bella and Edward the piano teacher take centre stage in Alec's live. The domestics and his tutor develop a close knit family for Alessandro's until his mother remarries and decides to send him back to school. Bella and Edward ask themselves what will happen of them once Alec is back at school but continue to live at the villa Lami. As fascism takes power over Italy Edward and Bella are asked to take Alec back with them to England.