The Two Hotel Francforts - Tapa blanda

Utterly unpredictable and quite brilliant ... We leave Lisbon breathless and utterly dazzled ... One of the major voices of contemporary fiction. Moving, ravishing and fiercely ambitious, this is a novel to treasure * Observer * If you think of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise reimagined by Alan Hollinghurst, you get the picture ... Leavitt paces his narrative with skill, and carefully doles out the truth about his characters to keep you turning the pages ... Never quite what it seems and never fails to intrigue * The Times * Decoys, fake names, doubles and puzzles abound in this carefully constructed novel. I sensed Leavitt having fun with the layered intricacies of his narrative ... somewhat Waugh-esque * Financial Times * Charged psycho-sexual drama ... Written in finely-honed prose and brief, elegant chapters, this evocative and atmospheric novel awakens us to our own expectations even as its characters' eyes are opened * Daily Mail * Atmospheric * New York Times Notable Books of the Year * Unfurls like a classic Hollywood film, crackling with intrigue and illicit romance ... He transports the reader to a wayward world racked by historic upheaval and intimate demons * O, the Oprah Magazine *

It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon is the only neutral port left in Europe - a city filled with spies and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to pass the time until they can escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, wealthy, bohemian and beset by all the social and sexual anxieties of their class. As Portugal's neutrality and the world's future hang in the balance, the hidden threads of their lives begin to come loose. This journey will change the four of them irrevocably.