Enchanted April (version 2)

Four women suffocating in different ways under gray London skies answer an advertisement for wisteria and sunshine in a medieval Italian castle. They have never met, but they share one desperate need: to flee their cramped, joyless lives, if only for a month. Lotty Wilkins trembles before her domineering husband. Rose Arbuthnot buries herself in duty and religion. Mrs. Fisher judges everyone from her corner of resentment. And Lady Caroline Dester, devastatingly beautiful and utterly trapped by it, has simply stopped believing anything can change. What they find in that enchanted place defies expectation. Under the Italian sun, rigid boundaries dissolve. Old wounds are examined with surprising tenderness. And four strangers become the friends who teach each other how to breathe again. Von Arnim writes with wit and warmth about the small miracle of women finally putting themselves first, even if just for a month in April.