Mimi's Ghost by Tim Parks

TIM PARKS's previous novels include Tongues of Flame (winner of the Somerset Maugham and Betty Trask Awards), Loving Roger (winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Cara Massimina (adapted for television by Dennis Potter shortly before his death), Goodness and Shear. He studied at Cambridge and Harvard, and now lives near Verona with his wife and three children. He lectures in Milan and is the highly respected translator of, among others, Italo Calvino, Antonio Tabucchi and Roberto Calasso.