Belladonna - Karen Moline

Belladonna was sold as a sexual slave for $1 million. After years of abuse at the hands of an anonymous English aristocrat and his peers she escapes with her daughter and two servants. One of these, Thomasino, an Italian partisan castrated by the Gestapo, narrates the story - how he and his brother nurse her back to confidence and how they decide to seek revenge on the people who so damaged her and caused the death of her son. They settle in New York and open an opulent and decadent nightclub, sure that its erotic reputation will lure the men who abused her. The plan succeeds but only after Belladonna has fallen for Guy and believes she no longer needs the protection of Thomasino. Disillusioned and hurt he realises that revenge is not a sweet dish and in an exquisitely moving finale Belladonna comes to the same conclusion.