Palace of the Drowned

In Venice, Frances Croy is working to leave the previous year behind: another novel published to little success, a scathing review she can't quite manage to forget, and a very public breakdown.Hunkering down in an aging palazzo, Frankie finds comfort in the emptiness of Venice in winter, in the absence of others. Desperate to rediscover the success of her first book, the one by which all her other work has been judged, she attempts to return to the page - ignoring the strained relationship with her best friend, and the growing fear that the end of her career is imminent.And then Gilly appears.A young woman claiming a connection from back home, one that Frankie can't quite seem to recall, Gilly seems determined for the two women to become fast friends. But there's something about her that continues to give Frankie pause, that makes her wonder just how much of what Gilly tells her is actually the truth.Those around Frankie are quick to dismiss her concerns, citing her recent fragile state. So too do they dismiss Frankie's claims that someone is occupying the other half of the palazzo, which has supposedly stood empty since after the war. But Frankie has caught Gilly in numerous lies, has seen the lights across the way, has heard the footsteps too-and what's more, knows she isn't mad.Set against the catastrophic 1966 flooding of Venice , Palace of the Drowned is a gorgeously twisted tale of art , ambition and female rivalry.