A young mother. A brutal winter. A tragedy that shakes a literary circle to its core.
Set against the charged atmosphere of swinging sixties London, Capriccio is a novel shaped by passion, scholarship and craft. It traces an obsessive love and its devastating consequences within an intimate circle of poets, artists and lovers.
At its centre is Esther, a Russian-German refugee whose arrival shatters the fragile peace of a famous poetic marriage, drawing her into a web of desire, rivalry and emotional dependence. As private lives collide with public scrutiny, the fragile boundaries between love, power and self-destruction begin to fracture.
Drawing on extensive research while remaining a work of fiction, Capriccio offers a richly imagined portrait of a literary scandal that shocked its era and continues to fascinate. All characters and identifying details have been fictionalised.
Written with emotional intelligence and restraint, Capriccio will appeal to readers of literary historical fiction drawn to complex relationships, artistic ambition and the fragile line between love and destruction.
This novel will resonate with readers interested in:
- Literary historical fiction
- Swinging sixties London
- Fiction inspired by real literary lives
- Feminist perspectives on love and power
- Coercive control and domestic dynamics
- Women's mental health and suicide
- Readers of The Bell Jar and literary fiction set within artistic circles
