Loss is an inevitable part of life: things change, history moves on but the gaps left by those losses need to be filled. Valerie Thornhill’s In Restoration describes how a Tuscan valley community and the way it adapts to change, while maintaining continuity, helps her characters in the struggle to overcome the greatest loss of all.

Olivia has a good career as a schoolteacher in suburban Guildford. She lives with her mother, grandparents and young son but also with the ever present shadow of a prisoner-of-war father from Italy she never knew. Her partner, Paul, is an art restorer who is absent for long periods but she is surrounded by her dependable friends from university days. All in all, life poses no serious problems until suddenly she has to face a personal tragedy. In order to escape her grief, while seeking out Paul in Italy, she buys a rundown farmhouse in a small Tuscan village. Here she imagines that she can spend all her holidays enjoying the beautiful scenery, dealing with the renovations and getting involved in local life. This, however, is no substitute for her loss. Deeper emotions of unhappiness disturb both her and Paul. Only with time, after the arrival of their second son Dan and by learning to come to terms with their feelings, can Olivia and Paul cope with the past and the future.

In Restoration is, at one level, a beautiful and acutely observed account of the luxuriant Tuscan countryside and the characters that inhabit it. We are introduced to her neighbours with their rural life and values. We learn about the antiquated quasi-feudal system of ownership that is gradually dying out and we are introduced to some of the darker sides of Italian politics. In Restoration is both stimulating and entertaining for its beautifully observed portrayal of Tuscan life. It is also a reflection about the nature of history - how it is created and how it shapes our present, around us and within us.

Valerie Thornhill studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and the Sorbonne. She has taught art history at Cambridge, Hull and York universities in England and the University of Berkeley in California. This is her first novel, following a collection of short stories, The Children of Kumbhalgar; a novella, The Tycoon’s Tale; and Cynthia Loves her Fiat 500.