An Irish writer, a Russian spy, an Italian priest. And a murder.

Summer 1895, Bologna.

Lily (Ethel Lilian Boole) is Irish, 31, beautiful and unmarried. Her life consists of music, literature, dealing with Irish and Russian revolutionaries and her Russian-Polish boyfriend - Wilfryd Voynich - a revolutionary she lives with in Shepherd's Bush in London. And who has still not asked for her hand while she has used his last name for ages. The years in Paris and as a music teacher among the revolutionaries in St Petersburg and Irkutsk are long behind her. An uncertain existence for her as things are unsettled in Europe lie ahead. The new century and the great changes to come are casting their shadows ahead and will affect everyone.

At a soirée of Russian and Polish exiles in London, after an argument with her fiancé Wilfrid, she falls for the charms of the mysterious Georgy Rosenblum. Her friends warn her about this womaniser, who is rumoured to be an agent provocateur for the Ochrana - the Tsarist secret police. Nevertheless, she plunges into a love affair with him and accepts his invitation to travel to Italy together for the summer.

Once in Bologna, Lily meets the old Dominican priest Lorenzo by coincidence. He confides in her and tells her the story that has tormented him for almost 50 years. Lorenzo's story touches her so deeply that she decides to use it as the basis for her novel 'The Gadfly', which she writes during that summer and which will play a special role for the rest of her life. A novel that will be printed in millions of copies.

Retail price: €19,90
Isbn 978 94 021 8153 1

(Music: Romance from ‘The Gadlfy Suite’, opus 97a, Dmitri Shostakovich)