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The Three Graces

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The Three Graces

By: Amanda Craig
Narrated by: Deryn Edwards
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About this listen

When Enzo shoots an illegal migrant from his bedroom one night, it triggers a series of events that embroil old and young, rich and poor, native and foreign. His elderly neighbours Ruth, Diana and Marta are three friends who have retired to Tuscany. Ruth's favourite grandson Olly is about to get married from her idyllic hillside farmhouse; however, the bride, Tania, seems curiously unengaged by anything but vlogging as a social media influencer. Marta, preparing to give the annual music recital sponsored by a Russian oligarch in hiding from Putin, is increasingly unwell, and her grandson, Xan, is full of resentment at the inequalities he encounters. Diana is nursing her husband, Lord Evenlode, who is living with dementia, and looking back over a long and troubled marriage.

Over two weeks in May, all these characters will face challenging choices as they grapple with their own past and with present dangers. For although the Tuscan spring looks as ravishing as a Renaissance painting, the realities of modern life make it harder and harder to believe that there is more that unites us than what keeps us apart.

Brilliant, enthralling, funny and generous, this is an exploration of the indomitable human heart.

©2023 Amanda Craig (P)2023 Hachette Audio UK Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Political Small Town & Rural Marriage Funny Heartfelt Italy

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Critic reviews

'She's such a skilful storyteller who vividly dramatises our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion' BERNARDINE EVARISTO

'I revelled in The Three Graces - such an intriguing cast, so convincingly presented, and a narrative that continually surprises' PENELOPE LIVELY

'A brilliant piece of storytelling... it should be the book everybody's reading this summer' ANDREW O'HAGAN
All stars
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The first two thirds of this were cosy and pleasant: Tuscany, spring, a variety of characters and a nicely busy plot with several intertwining strands decently and undemandingly written. I know that Amanda Craig writes about the Hampstead brigade (posh arty/intellectual people) and contemporary themes and it gradually became clear that a lot of the characters are just ciphers for the issues she wants to raise. Marta's unusually helpful and obliging grandson, for example, seems there mainly to make points about racism and the difficulties of young people who can't get onto the property ladder. Tania represents the issue of vacuous social media adherents. There's very little depth to them.

I did like the fact that three elderly women in their 80s formed the core of the book, though I was disappointed that Diana, apparently a brilliant psychiatrist, was so incurious and unable to assess what might be going on in peoples' heads.

The final third is a rush to tie up all the loose ends to create a ridiculously implausible happy ending. I'd heard Amanda Craig widely praised and had expected something more deft and insightful. The early part of the novel had me eagerly anticipating something of the standard of Rose Tremain. But no. Too much authorial voice and explanation. Too much telling us what people are thinking and not enough delicate showing what they're thinking — as if the reader can't be trusted to work things out for themselves. It all became very clunky and one could see all the component parts being dropped thunk-thunk-thunk into place. Pity. The three main characters — Ruth, Marta and Diana — deserved better.

The narrator is very good. Clear, a good reader and easy on the ear. Her Zimbabwean and Russian accents may have been off but the clarity and lack of affectation made up for that.

Pleasant fantasy about posh people in Tuscany

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Easy listening, warm characters & a great plot - it will make you smile & its well worth the time you invest in listening

What a lovely story!

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I wasn’t sure what to expect, but loved the characters, the wit and the world. Amanda Craig is a Trollope for the 21st century. ❤️

Great story beautifully told

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I really loved the first half of this. With the Tuscany idyll working its magic on a group of elderly English ladies who have chosen to make their homes there, The Three Graces seemed a clever updating of Elizabeth von Arnim’s 1922 The Enchanted April. In Amanda Craig’s seductively beautiful Tuscany, guests are arriving for the imminent wedding of the grandson of one of the ladies to Tanya, his obviously wholly unsuitable influencer fiancée. With all its references, up to the minute, I was enjoying its engagingly crisp feistiness.

The author is just superb at getting inside the heads and hearts of her characters expressing with wit and tenderness all their wide-ranging fears, regrets, passions, discomforts, opinions and life experiences, all of which will resonate with listeners of a certain age! The gulf between the generations and between cultures is also sharply observed. I enjoyed all these aspects enormously, along with the way the characters’ feelings are often expressed through interwoven exploration of Italian paintings.

But I became increasingly disappointed. With the author’s agenda concerning migrants becoming centre stage and the plot with its murder mystery and theatrical, almost Dickensian, revelations of identity, the whole story lurched into a different genre. It became clumsy, incredible and rather silly – such a let-down after all that went before!

It is, however, beautifully read with mastery over accents and voices as well as the smattering of Italian.

Spoilt by change of gear

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Loved listening to it. Sad it ended. Happily which was great Now what to visit Italy again

Interesting story

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Themes of love, family, war, and outsiders combine in this story set in Italy

A modern fable

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I loved spending time with the three very different women
at the heart of this book.

And I loved the surrounding cast of characters. All beautifully
observed and believable, from the 20-something influencer
to the reclusive oligarch.

Craig writes with elegance, sensitivity and wisdom about
some really complex and important themes. She also tells a
damned good story! Juggling multiple plotlines with ease, then
tying them all together beautifully.




A fabulous and satisfying read

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Enjoyed the story and characters - a contemporary middle class romp around Tuscany brushing some very current political and social issues on the way. Recommend.

A good summer listen

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An easy story to listen to, if a bit too ‘neat’ at times, but not as gripping as her other novels.

Good easy listen.

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Just packed with clichés about elderly women, Italy, everything. The number of different accents make it a tough job for the narrator and it’s a hard listen.

Awful, couldn’t finish

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