There is a village carved into the rock of the Maremma hinterland in Tuscany and its name is Le Case. A dying country. A provincial trap. A microcosm of characters who are as vivid as they are universal, their days unchanging and at times tedious.

That is, until the small community is shocked by the arrival of Samuele Radi, born and raised in the heart of the old village, but lost long ago to the world beyond. His return home is the trigger for this magnificently sprawling, choral novel by the author of Nives.

Here is a story about destiny and attempts to change it, about dangerous passions, about games that involve love and death. Because in Le Case the human universe is at times unforgiving. A large cast of extraordinary and memorable characters (including Nives herself, from Naspini's well received English debut), complicated lives, and complex interpersonal relations: all of these overlap, collide, commingle in a story of secrets and lies. Fortunes are lost, revenge is plotted; there are religious conversions, betrayals, theft, joy, and misfortune; there is love and occasional tenderness. The very stuff of life animates Naspini's picaresque second novel, the book that catapulted him to national fame in his native Italy, and will surely bring many new readers to his distinctive, prize-winning fiction.