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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
Part One: Terzo di Camollia
One: La Lupa, the Wolf
Two: Il Bruco, the Caterpillar
Three: Il Drago, the Dragon
Four: L’Istrice, the Porcupine
Five: La Giraffa, the Giraffe
Six: Oca, the Goose
Intermezzo
Part Two: Terzo di Città
Seven: L’Onda, the Wave
Eight: La Selva, the Forest
Nine: L’Aquila, the Eagle
Intermezzo
Ten: La Tartuca, the Tortoise
Eleven: La Chiocciola, the Snail
Twelve: La Pantera, the Panther
Part Three: Terzo di San Martino
Thirteen: Il Leocorno, the Unicorn
Fourteen: Il Nicchio, the Shell
Fifteen: La Civetta, the Owl
Sixteen: Il Valdimontone, the Ram
Part Four: Le Contrade Soppresse
Eighteen: Il Gallo, the Rooster
Nineteen: Il Leone, the Lion
Twenty: La Vipera, the Viper
Twenty-One: L’Orso, the Bear
Twenty-Two: La Quercia, the Oak Tree
Twenty-Three: La Spadaforte, the Sword
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE ITALIAN PARTY. Copyright © 2018 by Christina Lynch. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Excerpt(s) from LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA by Tim Weiner, copyright © 2007 by Tim Weiner. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, and by Penguin Book Ltd. All rights reserved.
“The More Loving One,” copyright © 1957 by W. H. Auden and renewed 1985 by The Estate of W. H. Auden; from W. H. AUDEN COLLECTED POEMS by W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. All rights reserved.
www.stmartins.com
Cover photographs: couple © Rekha Garton /Arcangel; street © MaraZe/Shutterstock.com; glasses © Ukki Studio/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Lynch, Christina, author.
Title: The Italian party: a novel / Christina Lynch.
Description: First edition. | New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017043680 | ISBN 9781250147837 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250193834 (international) | ISBN 9781250147844 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Married people—Fiction. | Family secrets—Fiction. | GSAFD: Black humor (Literature)
Classification: LCC PS3612.Y5414 I87 2018 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043680
e-ISBN 9781250147844
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First U.S. Edition: March 2018
First International Edition: March 2018