Any attempt to sum up Valerie Thornhill’s first novel, In Restoration, with a simple synopsis would inevitably fail to do it justice. The central character and narrator is Olivia, a schoolteacher from Guildford who is following a run-of-the-mill career path while coping with her private tragedies and tensions. Around her are university friends pursuing their chosen careers; her mother and grandparents with whom she lives; her young son Tim and her partner, Paul, an art restorer.

This neat existence is dramatically changed following a personal tragedy. The story moves into new dimensions, both in space and time when Olivia persuades Paul that they should buy a rundown second home in the Tuscan hills. In terms of space nothing could be further from the humdrum town life in Guildford than the challenging and vividly described Tuscan countryside. This setting, inhabited by Italians of peasant stock, with habits and values totally unknown to Olivia, provides her with a refuge where she can retreat and forget, at least temporarily, her loss.

It is time, however, that offers Olivia real consolation for her grief. In fact, time is the very fabric of In Restoration. The novel itself is written from a number of time perspectives. On one level it is part journal, on another it is part travelogue about Olivia’s experience of discovering and adapting to the Tuscan community of Montesasso (based on Cortona). Her acutely observed vignettes of local life, characters and scenery, as well as the difficulties of restoring an old house, catch the sense of recent as well as ancient history behind the even most apparently humble person like Gianni, the enigmatic stonemason who resembles a figure on an Etruscan vase. She inadvertently becomes involved in hilarious episodes of political intrigue, a kidnapping and a count and countess with the "evil eye" as well as the loss and consolation of children.

Olivia provides a commentary on her account of her Italian life. The Tuscan journal thus becomes a story within a story, so that, at one level, we learn about her day-to-day experiences in Italy, but on another, with the hindsight of time, events take on a historical significance that have helped shape her life in the present.

This theme of historicity is also reflected in other parts of the novel: the town and locality of Montesasso can be traced back to Etruscan times and this heritage is still present, even though it is gradually being transformed by the rise of consumerism and mass tourism; Paul’s restoration has to include commercial considerations as well as choices about the past, the present and future.

This vividly written book is about love and betrayal, destruction and restoration - of people, relationships, houses and paintings - but also about the healing powers of landscape and architecture. It deepens our understanding of how we adapt and restore our environment, as well as ourselves, in response to the unexpected turns of fate.

In Restoration is a wonderfully satisfying book to read, not least for the rich evocation of Tuscan life and its environment. But it is also a book that offers a profound reflection upon the importance of history, not just in order to understand major events or works of art, but to understand ourselves.

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"TO READ ANOTHER REVIEW of In Restoration - click here "

IN RESTORATION
READERS’ COMMENTS
www.in-restoration.com

"There have been many novels featuring Tuscany with ex-pats restoring derelict farmhouses in idyllic rural settings but never one of this outstanding quality. Not only beautifully written, it has a gripping story which uses the Italian landscape as a reflection of the changing relationship between the main characters, Olivia and Paul, as they cope with family tragedy. The vanishing centuries-old rural life around them is beautifully observed and is clearly drawn from the author’s long experience with the grass-roots country people of Tuscany as well as the competitive consumer world that is rapidly replacing them. Meanwhile, the enigmatic stone mason Gianni provides key links with the valley community and the nearby town. The wealth of human incidents - Etruscan tomb robbery as well as the rivalries and tensions between the local priest and the communist town councillors - provide a rich theatre of comedy and skulduggery, skilfully reflecting the bigger picture of post-war Italy. This book leaves one impatiently waiting for Thornhill’s next novel. "

-John Trelease, Amazon review

"Valerie Thornhill’s novel In Restoration is an unusual story of a stranger coming to Tuscany. Her tale about Olivia’s life, both in England and in Tuscany, is a fine study of human relationships, love, loss and healing, as well as a fascinating tale of a more familiar genre, ‘fixing up a house in a foreign land’. In this case, the telling of the tale includes wonderful insights into the history and daily life of Olivia’s new neighbours. This is a powerful novel, told from the background of Thornhill’s rich life experience. "

-Mary E Olin, Amazon review

"With its sensitive interplay between physical setting and human relationships, Valerie Thornhill’s In Restoration contains passages of emotional power and brilliance in writing which make her first novel a highly promising work. "

-Martyn Goff, British literary critic

"In Restoration is a moving and subtle novel in which the central voice explores both historical and personal losses which bind her British family to Italy, and reaches out to find inspiration in the Etruscan past, in the partisan experience of the farming community, and in the house she undertakes against the odds to restore to a family home. The opening is quite brilliant in its brief conjuring of a whole historical period. "

-Elinor Shaffer, British literary historian and critic

"This is a very three-dimensional and visual book - the scenery and actions are beautifully described and intensely felt. It is a stand-alone book that reveals a deeply involved relationship with Italy, her people, landscapes, art and history. The sense of place is acute. It feeds the eye as well as the mind. Valerie Thornhill’s is a fresh and distinctive new voice. "

-Erica Wilkinson, British design historian

"Books featuring the restoration of houses in Tuscany or Provence have become an Anglo-Saxon literary genre but what sets apart this account is both its authenticity - this is the real Tuscany, acutely observed - and the deeply felt quality of experience. "

-Judith Harris, American journalist and historian

"I began reading In Restoration on the return flight to the U.S. after my first visit to Italy and did not put it down during the entire trip until I’d completed it. I found it very evocative ... while the complex relationships and revelations at times brought tears to my eyes. "

-Susan Quick, American museum curator

"This is a book about love - for Olivia’s absent and unknown father; for her mother ‘wise through lost hope’; and the heartbreaking, aching love for her dead son Tim, intermingled with the extreme joy of Dan, witnessing his ‘journey out of childhood’... It is also about betrayal, understanding, acceptance and the healing power of landscape and a house... Above all, it is about human emotions, intensely experienced and sensitively and truthfully revealed. "

-Silvia Gavuzzo-Stewart, Italian art historian

"Against the contrasting settings of England’s quiet colours and Tuscany’s vivid sunburst yellows and radiant skies, this tangled web of family loyalties, feuds, tragedy, loss, loves and passion is played out with consummate skill. This finely wrought novel is a compelling read. "

-Kathleen Tarrant, British teacher

"In Restoration is not only entertaining, but also full of emotions and ideas... To me the very best part is Olivia’s journal... and I especially loved Mia Pia’s description of life in the mountains, some beautiful writing there. Gianni is a wonderful character. He really steps off the page. "

-Lynn Ftzwater, American connoisseur and explorer

"Nature plays the leading role in Valerie Thornhill’s book. Passages as fresh as plein-air sketches evocatively capture the changing landscape, in turn informing and revealing the complex personalities that populate the densely woven fabric of her story... Our involvement in the experience of loss and recovery that permeates the novel is such that on closing the book we feel as though we are parting with friends. "

-Francesco Nevola, Italian art historian

"Valerie Thornhill looks with both a poet’s and a novelist’s eye at people and places - at the landscapes of central Italy, and the reality of life and work amongst them through a period of economic and cultural change, conditioned by the heroine’s experiences of loss and transformation. "

-Robert Cockcroft, British poet and scholar

"I absolutely loved it! Reading it has brought back so many enjoyable memories of Tuscany....I found the characters enthralling, loved the story of the search for the house, and felt that the way that the Italian and English stories were interwoven was clever and engaging. "

-Margaret McIntyre, Australian physiotherapist

"In Restoration was a wonderful companion during my two weeks by the sea. I lived, literally, a Tuscan life through the various characters and their interactions and was completely caught up with the plot... A true tour de force! "

-Cordelia Richards, American traveller

"Valerie Thornhill’s work comes from the heart; it is expressed in an intense vocabulary of emotions, events and images that glow like richly woven tapestries. Her narrative threads, compulsive in their own right, are enriched by the tints and dyes of her phraseology and acutely observed minutiae, woven with apposite precision and understanding. "

-Robin Horspool, British artist and writer

"I found In Restoration absorbing, and was pulled into a specific atmosphere that felt like a real reflection of a certain life which I lived in part, alongside the narrator. It’s like when one remembers a dream, and isn’t sure whether it did in fact occur as one slept, or was something that had actually occurred in ‘real life’... a strongly communicated and atmospheric unfolding of events. "

-Samantha Beste, American artist

"I am enjoying In Restoration very much indeed, and I can’t read it fast enough. "

-Michael Cole, Singapore resident

"I have just finished reading In Restoration by Valerie Thornhill, and while I had intended to leave it until I had finished another book, I read the first chapter and was hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the main character, Olivia, through her goal of building a new life in Italy after the tragic loss of her child. It’s hard to believe this is Valerie Thornhill’s first novel, so eloquent are her descriptions of everyday life and complex relationships.

When Olivia is in Italy watching over her restoration, she keeps a diary (written in italics) that draws you in to her personal thoughts and experiences. For anyone like me who loves ‘all things Italian’, this book should be added to your library. "

-Amazon review