What a treat it is to be in the hands of an accomplished storyteller; someone who has already provided me with hours of joy in her previous works. Ephron is, after all, the famous author of books, essays and such film scripts as You’ve Got Mail and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. That said, Siracusa is not like her previous works, in that the characters, real as they seem, are simply not nice people.

The story centres on two couples: New Yorkers Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a journalist, and their friends from Maine, Finn, Taylor, and their (simmering) ten-year-old daughter, Snow. Chapter by chapter, as if we were perusing a classic murder mystery, it becomes clear that these marriages are teetering on the edge of failure. Each adult is given a chapter to tell their side of the story, admitting us entry to their private (and pitiful) contemplations and anticipations.

As the adults are enveloped by their backdrop of Italian art and ruins, the chart of their demise becomes a charade of absurd situations. All of the characters share a bewildering inability for insight, which manifests in highly comical ways. Ephron is a humorous writer and she well understands the power of scrutinising the minute detail as a means of quantifying and exploring broader issues. It allows for very enjoyable reading. Siracusa is a polished gem of a novel that makes fine use of parody. This book is excellent reading for fans of Anne Tyler, Kate Atkinson and Toni Jordan.

Chris Gordon