First published 2020
Thomas arrives in Venice carrying nothing but a notebook and years of frustrated ambition. The city's narrow passages mirror his tangled thoughts as he struggles to write the novel that has eluded him for decades. Each morning he sits in the same café overlooking the Grand Canal, watching tourists and locals navigate their separate worlds while his blank pages mock him. When he meets Elena, a local bookshop owner who speaks frankly about art and failure, Thomas begins to question whether his writer's block stems from fear of success or fear of discovering he has nothing meaningful to say. As autumn fog rolls across the lagoon, Thomas must choose between the comfortable paralysis of potential and the terrifying act of creation. This quiet novel explores how a city built on water can either drown dreams or teach them to float.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, travel, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, second-chance
Setting: Venice
Period: Autumn
Paperback