Description

'A beguiling whirlwind of love and obsession' Elle
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It is summer, 1956, when fifteen-year-old Bridget first meets Isabella. In their conservative Connecticut town, Isabella is a breath of fresh air. She is worldly, alluring and brazen: an enigma.

When they receive an offer to study at the Academy in Italy, Bridget is thrilled. This is her ticket to Europe and - better still - a chance to spend nine whole months with her glamorous and unpredictable best friend.

There, lodged in a convent of nuns who have taken a vow of silence, the two girls move towards a passionate but fragile intimacy. As the year rolls on, Bridget grows increasingly fearful that she will lose Isabella's affections - and the more desperate she gets, the greater the lengths she will go to keep her.

Belladonna is a hypnotizing coming-of age story set against the stunning and evocative backdrop of rural Northern Italy. Anbara Salam tells a story of friendship and obsession, desire and betrayal, and the lies we tell in order to belong.
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'An enthralling tale of race, secrets and the desire to belong' i

'Lush and languid , this sultry coming-of-age tale captures a fractured friendship and the yearnings of girlhood' Daily Mail

' Thrillingly ambitious, moving, painful and insightful. This book captures something unique about the experience of jealousy, betrayal and the muddied waters that lie between friendship and obsessive love ' Daisy Buchanan

' The Virgin Suicides meets Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley , this unputdownable and lush novel had me entranced' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti