Turmoil in Tuscany: The Three Graces, by Amanda Craig, reviewed

The title of Amanda Craig’s enjoyable and provocative ninth novel might conjure the dancing trio in Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’ (which we visit in the book, set in Tuscany); but the three graces here are Ruth, Diana and Marta, elderly expat friends who meet for weekly gossips over coffee, ‘united by age, exile, the love of dogs and their disinclination to discuss their infirmities’. The women may be less beautiful than Botticelli’s, but they are certainly more formidable. By the end of the first chapter they’ve already smashed a car window to rescue an overheating dog.

Their idyll is thrown into turmoil when Ruth finds herself hosting her grandson’s ill-matched wedding, Diana’s dementia-suffering husband takes a turn for the worse, and Marta must summon all her strength for a final piano recital. It’s a potent scenario for the author’s grappling with current issues – which here include traffickers and illegal migrants, the war in Ukraine and the legacy of British colonialism.

Craig enjoys revisiting characters from her previous books, so it’s no surprise that these women have appeared before, as have other members of the cast. In shifting her focus from her central trio to the interlinked crowd, she makes the point that the elderly aren’t separate from the rest of us, and that we are all intrinsic to each other’s lives. The influence of E.M. Forster, and his imperative ‘Only connect’, is frequently felt, as is that of Trollope, Austen, Shakespeare and other literary greats. 

The characters are easily imaginable people (Craig has said in an interview that ‘they’re with me all the time’), but they also provide vehicles to explore thorny problems. Through Tania, a misunderstood, traumatised, shy and beautiful young woman, we delve into social media and autism; in Xan, a thoughtful, lonely young man, struggling to work out what he’s doing with his life, we explore racism and Generation Rent.