Description

‘A complicated, disturbing and intelligent book with all the propulsion of a page-turner.’
Amy Sackville, author of Painter to the King

‘So perfectly captures the light and taste and colour of an Italian summer.’
Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

Summer, 1992. Peter, a promising young artist, vanishes off the coast of Tuscany. Ten days later, his body washes ashore, bloated and unrecognisable. For one sweltering summer, his death grips the public imagination, before fading into the haze of nineties lore.

Thirty years on, Peter’s widow, Marie, has become infamous in her own right. A cult but reclusive horror writer, her novels are celebrated for their dark brilliance – but no one knows the woman behind the pen name, or the memories she’s spent a lifetime suppressing.

When a retrospective of Peter’s work is announced at a prestigious London gallery, an old friend resurfaces who seems determined to drag Marie from the shadows and unmask her. Drawn back to Italy, she feels the past begin to stir: the heat, the secrets, the girl she once was. What does she owe the dead – and how far will she go to protect the living?

Publisher Review

A beautiful, intelligent and transportive novel about love, co-dependency, grief and the redemption of finding your own voice. Livia writes the hot claustrophobia of first love – and the wounds it leaves behind – forensically, tenderly. * Lara Williams, author of Supper Club * Franchini has so perfectly captured the light and taste and colour of an Italian summer in this vivid novel about youth, love, art, debauchery and consequences. * Sara Baume, multi-award-winning author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither * As sultry as it is menacing, High Tide is a novel about desire, grief, art. It’s about the stories we tell and the stories we hide. High Tide has everything you need: sex, mystery and Mediterranean decadence. * Jarred McGinnis, author of The Coward * A dark, tense, and compulsive novel. The Shelleys and their seedy entourage are uncannily reincarnated as palazzo-parasite, would-be YBAs on a grungy Grand Tour: the result is unputdownable. * Francesa Reese, author of Voyeur * Art, hedonism and the nineties sweating under a menacing Italian sun: I feel intoxicated just thinking of about High Tide. Fans of Ferrante’s darker works will not be disappointed. * Charlotte Tierney, author of The Cat Bride * Brilliant. I was completely beguiled by its woozy, boozy atmosphere; it’s as thrilling and seductive as a beach read, with a corpse washed up in it. High Tide is a complicated, disturbing and intelligent book with all the propulsion of a page-turner. * Amy Sackville, author of Painter to the King * An intoxicating, sweltering and engrossing novel. It is truly one of the best books you will read this year. * Misha Honcharenko, author of Trap Unfolds Me Greedily * Set in the bright, careless delirium of youth and saturated with colour, excess and lust, High Tide is a novel of striking beauty and gathering darkness – poetic, heart-throbbingly pacy and poignant in its exploration of art and agency. I devoured High Tide in a day, but I still wear its salt on my skin. * Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block * Both grimily glamorous and campily Gothic, High Tide is a novel of love, art and insanity. Franchini injects all the thrills of a horror movie into a languidly tragic love story that trespasses from London’s wild art scene to the harshly beautiful Italian coast. * Dizz Tate, author of Brutes * Whip-smart, slyly heartbreaking, and I felt the truth of it in my bones. Franchini dissects ideas of love, dating and identity in a way that feels both ruthless and humane. I loved it. * Sophie Mackintosh, on SHELF LIFE * This is a book that should not be missed: a beautifully executed contribution to the discussion of toxic masculine behaviour and the patterns of socialisation that enable it. * Guardian, on SHELF LIFE * Franchini’s voice is sharp and clever and her debut novel tells us truths about how and why we love. * Jessica Andrews, on SHELF LIFE * Quirky, awkward and fresh… There’s a confidence to the wilful eccentricities of her writing. * Observer, on SHELF LIFE * A quirky, funny, poignant book which shimmers with originality. I loved it. * Sarah Langford, on SHELF LIFE *