I Give It to You

A Novel

By: Valerie Martin

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A timeless story of family, war, art, and betrayal set around an ancient, ancestral home in the Tuscan countryside from bestselling novelist Valerie Martin.

When Jan Vidor, an American writer and academic, rents an apartment in a Tuscan villa for the summer, she plans to spend her break working on a novel about Mussolini. Instead, she finds herself captivated by her aristocratic landlady, the elegant, acerbic Beatrice Salviati Bartolo Doyle, whose family has owned Villa Chiara for generations. Jan is intrigued by Beatrice’s stories of World War II, particularly by the tragic fate of her uncle Sandro, who was mysteriously murdered in the driveway of the villa at the conclusion of the war. Day by day, Beatrice makes Jan privy to her family history.

As years go by and the friendship is sustained by infrequent meetings, Jan finds she can’t resist writing Beatrice’s story. But as she works on the novel, it becomes clear that the villa itself is at risk and that Beatrice is incapable of saving it. Jan understands that she is telling the story of a catastrophe her friend might prefer to conceal. She presses on.

©2020 Valerie Martin (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The stories at the heart of Valerie Martin’s latest novel, I Give It to You, are freely, but not always innocently, shared. And what Martin’s narrator does with them raises prickly questions of ownership, artistic license and ethical responsibility.” (The New York Times Book Review)

"Yes, the narrator of Martin’s new novel is a middle-aged American woman vacationing in Tuscany, but this prickly, uncomfortably relevant dive into personal and societal ethics is no escapist romance ... Martin parses personal and social politics with methodical care and a reserved tone reminiscent of Edith Wharton.” (Kirkus, starred review)

"An Italian villa and the family that owns it capture the imagination of an American writer in Martin’s intimate, disquieting latest ... Martin’s engrossing tale explores relationships among family members and workers over four generations ... Martin’s masterly descriptions of the villa and its gardens are transportive. Evoking the charms and complexities of 20th-century Italy, Martin offers a thought-provoking reflection on writing, friendship, family, and betrayal.” (Publishers Weekly)

Unstoppable reading

There is no bigger pleasure than getting a book one cannot stop reading. Very well written, marvelous descriptions of locations, interesting characters and an interesting story. What else can one whish for in a book.