Publisher's Synopsis
"Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice, there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors." Henry James Gerald and Maurice, retired friends travelling in Italy, must reckon with their past lives when they meet and get to know Victor Chance, an environmentalist, his wife Susan, and a boy called Alessandro while in Venice. As Maurice grows close to Alessandro, Gerald's jealousy resurrects suspicions of his friend's disreputable past, and whose behaviour threatens the boy, his family, and their friendship. When a strange new virus is discovered in China, and then becomes a global health crisis the city begins to empty, and Gerald and Maurice must follow the other guests and leave. But Gerald's determination to confront his friend results in revelations that are devastating to them both.
