Lessons in ChemistrymeetsMad Menin this wildly entertaining debut novel, set in glamorous Rome in the late 1960s, which follows the free-spirited wife of an American diplomat as she desperately tries to contain a scandal of her own making.
It is the summer of 1969 and Rome is awash with glamour and intrigue: the stars of Cinecitt are drinking and dancing along the paparazzo-lined Via Veneto, where royalty, American expats, and the occasional Russian spy rub shoulders.
Teddy Huntley Carlyle has just arrived in Italy from Dallas, Texas, eager for a fresh start with her new husband, a diplomat assigned to the American embassy. After years of spoiling like old milk, in the words of her controlling, politically-minded uncle, Teddy vows to turn over a new leaf. She will be the soul of discretion; she will be conservative, proper, and polite. She will be her most beautiful, luminous self, wearing the right clothes and the perfect lipstick, an
