Hardcover. New York, Arcade, 1st US, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 248 pages. A very clean, tight copy. Christopher Burton, the protagonist of this masterful novel, is one of Britain's foremost foreign correspondents, the acknowledged world expert on Italian affairs. Three months after returning to London with his Italian wife for an extended stay, Burton receives a phone call at the reception desk of his hotel informing him that his teenage son has committed suicide. Why, upon receiving this terrible news, does he immediately conclude that his marriage of almost thirty years is over? And why is grief so slow in coming?