Books

A collection of feel-good short stories and short stories inspired by real-life events.

A divorced father synchronises dreams with his daughter. Grandparents accept their gay grandson and his partner. Parents accept a child born with issues.

A sophisticated Venetian lady overcomes her views to play a pivotal role in a same-sex wedding  because "our family does not put terms and conditions on love." Other stories feature friends, families, gay families, father-children love, memories, and change.

The collection ends with three short essays on topics significant to the author.

 

“Very interesting stories with a lot of poignant moments.” M.R. 

Venice1866, a Frenchman on his honeymoon, sees an artist sketching a scene. When he visits his workshop, he falls in love with the painting and commissions five versions: one for himself, one for his two siblings, one for his parents, and another small one as a sample to show them while waiting for the others to arrive.Venice 1950. Somebody kills an art dealer using one piece of a frame removed from one of the five versions he had in his gallery for sale. Who did it? Why did he take out one side of a frame? A few days later, somebody breaks into the warehouse of an auction house, where another of the five versions is waiting to be auctioned, and removes the left side of the frame. Who broke ...

Venice 1947. Countess Pesaro De Bonfili is searching for the legitimate heirs of Raffaele and Sylvia Mustaki, a couple who did not survive Nazi camps. Two researchers from a Venetian law firm travel to a displaced people camp in Germany to meet Leah Mustaki, a young woman who could be the couple’s daughter but has lost her memory. The countess decides to bring Leah to Venice, believing that the city holds the key to unlocking her past and revealing her true identity. As Leah arrives at Venice train station, a mysterious figure watches her arrival in disbelief. He has just seen a ghost ...A story full of characters who are not who they say they are, characters who find themselves, and a sur...

Venice 1930. Three clients contact the Venier-Zanin law firm to discuss a bizarre clause in a loan contract. Rachele is sure that the connection between a Swiss Bank and an Italian shipping company holds the key to understanding that clause.Two of her clients, Wolfgang Meyer and Rachele’s brother, Daniele Modiano, want to find out more about the shipping company.They meet the managing director, Enrico Fontana, who is found dead late the same day. Wolfgang Meyer and Daniele Modiano were the last two entries in his diary.Who killed him? What was the connection between the Swiss bank and the shipping company? Why do the Swiss police ask for her cooperation?Rachele needs to find an answer to t...

Venice 1925. Somebody shoots at two teenagers who jumped a fence to retrieve a ball from Villa Kalman’s garden. A couple of months later, a young man is found severely beaten and unconscious in the shed of the same villa. Who fired the shot? Who was the young man? Why was he beaten unconscious? Were those events related? Rachele Modiano Mendes is pregnant with her second child. She needs to unravel Villa Kalman’s secrets before she starts a leave of absence from work.

There were very few women practising law in Venice in 1921. Even fewer of them are married. A Venetian law firm hires Rachele Modiano Mendes almost as a bet. She must be better than everybody else just to be credible.She wins the confidence of her boss. However, she needs to win over a magistrate who praises her “masculine” brain but is convinced that she is just a young woman from an aristocratic family who works as a hobby to prove a point. She will have to face that magistrate in court. A civil case to protect the name of an art expert snowballs into fraud, blackmail, and suspected death. To support her client, and win over the magistrate, she needs to see through anything that m...

What turning point makes you decide to risk your life to bring about change?Emma Mendes was a girl from an upper-class Venetian family; she led a comfortable life. She was the eldest daughter of one of the few professional couples in 1930s Venice and planned to become a lawyer like her mother. Then, in 1938, Fascist Italy passed racial laws discriminating against Jews, and her world changed dramatically. Her family's immediate reaction was to adjust and do whatever they could to keep as much of their lifestyle as possible. Emma’s future prospects significantly changed. She could not continue her education, so she was apprenticed to a dressmaker.In September 1943, Nazi Germany included Ital...