“The annual Christmas present debate was abruptly suspended. Their adored maestro, Walter Albero, PhD, who had originally set out in life intending to be a botanist, could be heard wheeling his bicycle down the hall. He pushed through the door, his thinning hair disarranged like the feathers of a wobbly fledgling who has not yet figured out his wings and what to do with them. “News,” he said, but of course he said it in Italian which, as you know, is notizie. “Bad news?” By way of an answer he simply uttered two words that required no translation, “The directress.””

Extract from the novel, ‘Ladies of the Italian Class and the Urge to Purloin’