The Strangers' Gallery

In 1847, Italy is on the brink of revolution. In Jonathan Keates' highly acclaimed first novel, a young Englishman, Edward Rivers, arrives in the small town of Villafranca and an intriguing tale of passion, jealousy and betrayal unfolds. 'An unusual historical novel of love and death in nineteenth century Italy ... Jonathan Keates' analysis of conflicting passions is so graciously wrought, and with so careful an attention to psychology, that it is hard to believe The Strangers' Gallery is a first novel; a comparison with Stendhal's Scarlet and Black would not go amiss.' Independent This is a rich novel ... an extraordinary feat of imaginative transference into another age and culture.' Financial Times 'It is surely close to another nineteenth century novel written in the twentieth century - Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard.' Spectator 'Italy before a revolution is described in exquisite miniature with every detail of place and mannerism picked out and placed under glass... perfect and faultless' Sunday Times