FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BLACK NARCISSUS AND THE RIVER''One of our best and most captivating novelists'' PHILIP HENSHER ''[Godden has] a genius for storytelling'' EVENING STANDARD ''Her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty'' NEW YORK TIMES When their mother leaves the country to be with her lover, Hugh and Caddie Clavering''s seemingly perfect life falls apart. Devastated by the sudden, bitter dissolution of their parents'' marriage and desperate for her to come back, the children travel alone to the Villa Fiorita on Lake Garda, determined not to leave without her. On arrival, they can tell Fanny and Rob are deeply in love, and their mother is happier than they''ve ever seen her, but the scheme lives on. Thankfully, Rob''s young daughter is only too glad to help destroy their parents'' relationship. Will Hugh and Caddie realise that their actions have consequences before it is too late?Told with wit and great empathy against a stunning evocation of the Italian countryside, Rumer Godden''s The Battle of the Villa Fiorita marks another coming of age classic for the highly acclaimed author.