Piero Chiaras novel is at once a murder mystery and a lyrical study of desire greed and deception. The ending is simply stunning. Andr Aciman author of Call Me by Your Name Summer 1946. World War Two has just come to an end and theres a yearning for renewal. A man in his thirties is sailing on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy hoping to put off the inevitable return to work. Dropping anchor in a small fashionable port he meets the enigmatic owner of a nearby villa who invites him home for dinner