Mr B's review

In a hotel in the conflict-ridden South Tyrolean region of Italy, baby Eva sleeps in an apple crate while her mother cooks sumptuous dishes for tourists. The chapters flick between the dramas of Eva’s unmarried mother, Gerda and adult Eva’s train journey to see Vito, the man who is the closest thing to a father she has ever known. At once historical and relevant, domestic and political, romantic and literary, I was mesmerised by this powerful story and its complex, compassionate characters.