Liar Dice

Petronella has never felt that her life was on course – from growing up in 1950s Yorkshire with a glamourous Italian mother, Maddalena, to her failed marriage and struggles with her son, but when her father, Alex, dies, she finds a chest containing her Italian mother’s belongings and sets out on a path of discovery. Translating an account of Maddalena’s war time experiences as part of a partisan brigade in the mountains, where Maddalena and Alex first met, Petronella begins to suspect that her father was implicated in the death of Vittorio, her mother’s lover who was captured by the Nazis following a tip-off from a collaborator. She makes the journey to Porto Romola and, helped by a local historian, Nando, pieces together not only her parents’ story, including the hours spent playing liar dice to while away time between operations, but also her own story; one that might include Nando.