Patricia and Malise

This mischievous roman à clef revolves around the interactions of five main characters. There is Patricia, a young English woman who lives in Lucca and is married with a cerebral Italian academic Andrea. She has a young child and a deep longing for home. Then there are polar opposites Malise and Christian. Malise is beautiful, smart, aloof and cruel, and Christian, his younger brother, has never been able to let go of his adoration for Malise. Growing up together in Hertfordshire they are bound together by a grossly immoral secret as crass as Kathleen, the nurse who looks after their father. Meeting Patricia in Italy changes both of them forever, unleashing emotions neither knew existed. Sensuous, darkly funny bordering on demonic, The Girl Who Fell off Her Bike is a wicked love story that skillfully plays with painfully British obsessions.