Shadowing the Sun

This is an assured and atmospheric first novel for fans of "Hideous Kinky", about a daughter's relationship with her negligent and self-obsessed father, and how the events of one intense Italian summer changed their lives for ever.It is suitable for readers of Kate Atkinson, Esther Freud, Tessa Hadley, Susan Fletcher.29-year-old Sylvie is about to meet her father again after 13 years apart, to ask him to give her away at her wedding. Although she has a promising career as a photographer and a steady, secure relationship with her fiance Jack, Sylvie feels restless and unsettled and, as she prepares for the reunion with her father, her thoughts turn increasingly to their final, fateful summer together when she was 12, and visiting his commune just outside Florence. The events of that holiday cast their long shadow over her teenage years, and now also threaten her happiness as an adult. In deft and compelling prose, Lily Dunn tells the parallel stories of Sylvie's present and past - the anxious week in London waiting for her father, and the summer in Italy that started so promisingly, but ended with such betrayal and loss of innocence.