Description

‘Hugely entertaining’ Telegraph

‘She’s such a skilful storyteller who vividly dramatises our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion’
BERNARDINE EVARISTO

‘I revelled in The Three Graces – such an intriguing cast, so convincingly presented, and a narrative that continually surprises’
PENELOPE LIVELY

‘A brilliant piece of storytelling… it should be the book everybody’s reading this summer’
ANDREW O’HAGAN

‘Gorgeous and generous… rich with characters and suffused with sunlight’
LISSA EVANS

When Enzo shoots an illegal migrant from his bedroom one night, it triggers a series of events that embroil old and young, rich and poor, native and foreign. His elderly neighbours Ruth, Diana and Marta are three friends who have retired to Tuscany. Ruth’s favourite grandson Olly is about to get married from her idyllic hillside farmhouse; however, the bride, Tania, seems curiously unengaged by anything but vlogging as a social media influencer. Marta, preparing to give the annual music recital sponsored by a Russian oligarch in hiding from Putin, is increasingly unwell, and her grandson, Xan, is full of resentment at the inequalities he encounters. Diana is nursing her husband, Lord Evenlode, who is living with dementia, and looking back over a long and troubled marriage.

Over two weeks in May, all these characters will face challenging choices as they grapple with their own past and with present dangers. For although the Tuscan spring looks as ravishing as a Renaissance painting, the realities of modern life make it harder and harder to believe that there is more that unites us than what keeps us apart.

Brilliant, enthralling, funny and generous, this is an exploration of the indomitable human heart.

Publisher Review

Hugely entertaining * Telegraph * I revelled in The Three Graces - such an intriguing cast, so convincingly presented, and a narrative that continually surprises. The Tuscan backdrop is illuminating, the apposition between old and young so persuasively displayed. A terrific read. * Penelope Lively * People talk about the infirmities of old age, but what about the firmities? What about the beliefs, the events, the politics, the odd secret? The Three Graces is a brilliant piece of storytelling that revels in the world of expat old ladies in Tuscany, and it should be the book everybody's reading this summer. The setting's idyllic, the air is mild in May, but there's a threat of England and family histories just beyond the horizon. It's a novel E.M. Foster would've loved. * Andrew O'Hagan, author of Mayflies * Gorgeous and generous... rich with characters and suffused with sunlight. It has so much to say on age - the three graces of the title are all over eighty; wonderful to have elderly characters, so usually marginal, right at the centre of the plot * Lissa Evans, author of Old Baggage * I love Amanda Craig's work, always supercharged with bright colouration and passionate feeling. And her imagination seems boundless: a defiant, bubbling wellspring of free-wheeling enquiry in a literary landscape made more and more arid and monotonous * Rose Tremain * Thoroughly enjoyable... Craig's continuing interest in exposing the fault lines of class, wealth and the inequality of opportunity is striking -- Alex Clark * Observer *