Two beautiful, memorable novels in one volume, both focussing on women who retreat into their imaginations until the boundaries between what is real and what is not become blurred.

In ‘Reading Turgenev’, an Irish country girl is trapped in a loveless marriage with an older man. But she finds unusual solace

in secret meetings with a man who shares her passion for Russian novels. This novella was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

The second story, ‘My House in Umbria’ tells how romantic novelist Emily Delahunty helps the survivors of a bomb attack on a train and invents colourful pasts for her patients.