Happy Friday! Today I am featuring the newest novel by Natalie Jenner. Every Time We Say Goodbye is historical fiction set in Italy in 1955, but with a WWII tie in. It has a cast of real life and fictional characters that looks to be an excellent read.
Here’s the first line:
The handbag is almost empty inside.
The bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls returns with a brilliant novel of love and art, of grief and memory, of confronting the past and facing the future.
In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry’s last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.
As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a brilliant exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novels The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls.
Natalie Jenner is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY and BLOOMSBURY GIRLS, which have been translated in over twenty languages worldwide. Natalie’s third novel, EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE, releases on May 14, 2024. Born in England and raised in Canada, Natalie has been a corporate lawyer and career coach and once owned an independent bookstore in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs.
Ooh, this sounds like it would be exactly my cup of tea. Thanks for sharing about it! Happy reading!