By the Grand Canal - William Riviere

A British diplomat living in Venice in the aftermath of WWI, Hugh Thurne is in love with a young Venetian woman when his best friend's widow, Violet Mancroft, arrives from England. Still absorbed by grief, Violet is unsure what direction her relationship with Hugh might now take, as well as anxious about her son, Robert, who has fallen in love with Gloria Venier, a young Grand Canal girl. Unlike Violet, Giacomo Venier is amused by his daughter's fledgling relationship - but he is dying, leaving his wife Valentina to maintain their dilapidated palace and face financial ruin, and to bring up their teenage children alone.

From the English coast to Venice and Britain's dominions in the East, this is a novel about empires and their crises, about the desolation and the hope after the Great War, about death, time and memory, and innocent - and less innocent - love.