Pleasant fantasy about posh people in Tuscany

The first two thirds of this were cosy and pleasant: Tuscany, spring, a variety of characters and a nicely busy plot with several intertwining strands decently and undemandingly written. I know that Amanda Craig writes about the Hampstead brigade (posh arty/intellectual people) and contemporary themes and it gradually became clear that a lot of the characters are just ciphers for the issues she wants to raise. Marta's unusually helpful and obliging grandson, for example, seems there mainly to make points about racism and the difficulties of young people who can't get onto the property ladder. Tania represents the issue of vacuous social media adherents. There's very little depth to them.

I did like the fact that three elderly women in their 80s formed the core of the book, though I was disappointed that Diana, apparently a brilliant psychiatrist, was so incurious and unable to assess what might be going on in peoples' heads.

The final third is a rush to tie up all the loose ends to create a ridiculously implausible happy ending. I'd heard Amanda Craig widely praised and had expected something more deft and insightful. The early part of the novel had me eagerly anticipating something of the standard of Rose Tremain. But no. Too much authorial voice and explanation. Too much telling us what people are thinking and not enough delicate showing what they're thinking — as if the reader can't be trusted to work things out for themselves. It all became very clunky and one could see all the component parts being dropped thunk-thunk-thunk into place. Pity. The three main characters — Ruth, Marta and Diana — deserved better.

The narrator is very good. Clear, a good reader and easy on the ear. Her Zimbabwean and Russian accents may have been off but the clarity and lack of affectation made up for that.

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What a lovely story!

Easy listening, warm characters & a great plot - it will make you smile & its well worth the time you invest in listening

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Great story beautifully told

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but loved the characters, the wit and the world. Amanda Craig is a Trollope for the 21st century. ❤️

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Spoilt by change of gear

I really loved the first half of this. With the Tuscany idyll working its magic on a group of elderly English ladies who have chosen to make their homes there, The Three Graces seemed a clever updating of Elizabeth von Arnim’s 1922 The Enchanted April. In Amanda Craig’s seductively beautiful Tuscany, guests are arriving for the imminent wedding of the grandson of one of the ladies to Tanya, his obviously wholly unsuitable influencer fiancée. With all its references, up to the minute, I was enjoying its engagingly crisp feistiness.

The author is just superb at getting inside the heads and hearts of her characters expressing with wit and tenderness all their wide-ranging fears, regrets, passions, discomforts, opinions and life experiences, all of which will resonate with listeners of a certain age! The gulf between the generations and between cultures is also sharply observed. I enjoyed all these aspects enormously, along with the way the characters’ feelings are often expressed through interwoven exploration of Italian paintings.

But I became increasingly disappointed. With the author’s agenda concerning migrants becoming centre stage and the plot with its murder mystery and theatrical, almost Dickensian, revelations of identity, the whole story lurched into a different genre. It became clumsy, incredible and rather silly – such a let-down after all that went before!

It is, however, beautifully read with mastery over accents and voices as well as the smattering of Italian.

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Interesting story

Loved listening to it. Sad it ended. Happily which was great Now what to visit Italy again

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A modern fable

Themes of love, family, war, and outsiders combine in this story set in Italy

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2 people found this helpful

A fabulous and satisfying read

I loved spending time with the three very different women
at the heart of this book.

And I loved the surrounding cast of characters. All beautifully
observed and believable, from the 20-something influencer
to the reclusive oligarch.

Craig writes with elegance, sensitivity and wisdom about
some really complex and important themes. She also tells a
damned good story! Juggling multiple plotlines with ease, then
tying them all together beautifully.

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2 people found this helpful

A good summer listen

Enjoyed the story and characters - a contemporary middle class romp around Tuscany brushing some very current political and social issues on the way. Recommend.

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Good easy listen.

An easy story to listen to, if a bit too ‘neat’ at times, but not as gripping as her other novels.

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Awful, couldn’t finish

Just packed with clichés about elderly women, Italy, everything. The number of different accents make it a tough job for the narrator and it’s a hard listen.

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