Douban: Across the Bridge of Sighs

In these twelve wry, captivating stories, Jane Turner Rylands returns with more tales about the mysterious day-to-day life of Venetians, in which the conflicting forces of progress and tradition are very much at odds.

Once again we become insiders, let in on the attitudes and habits of characters from all strata of Venetian society—from very different backgrounds and neighborhoods—in one of the world’s most unknowable cities. Rylands makes us understand the subtle hierarchies of this Byzantine society with all its robust snobberies. The unique quirks, petty rivalries, and jealousies that lie just beneath the city’s elegant veneer are brilliantly observed.

Unforgettable characters from Rylands’s first collection make return appearances in several stories, and many new figures are introduced. An unscrupulous former race-car driver unveils a plan to save Venice; a fiendish son plans an aphrodisiac dinner; superstition and a possible curse add to a family’s very contemporary troubles over the restoration of their ancient palazzo, where a struggle ensues between decline and change.

As always with Rylands’s stories, we are easily drawn into this sophisticated but ultimately small-town world, and we come to understand the eccentricities of its citizens and the fragility of their future. In Across the Bridge of Sighs, Jane Turner Rylands evokes the poignant and lively world of one of our most cherished cities with all the power of a master storyteller.

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