The Incomplete Husband

by Ben Faccini

When Elena falls in love with Riccardo, she also falls in love with the idea of a world beyond her sheltered life in rural Italy. And when she loses him, she gives up her hopes for the future and her expectations of happiness, filling the sudden void in her life with her son and brother-in-law. It is only when the young Marco rejects the role his mother has created for him and flees to Paris, with its migrant populations, political protests and romantic possibilities, that all three come to realize how tightly they have been bound within a triangle of conspiracy and how much they must risk to break free from the secrets of the past.

352 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[R.G. Ziemer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotional drama of a family haunted by love, loss, and broken dreams. Elena is left behind, pregnant, in her Italian mountain village when her lover Riccardo pursues his dreams of a new life in the New World. Elena's own journey takes her and her son to Paris and the South of France where she begins a new life with her brother-in-law Giacomo, whose dreams manifest in his imaginative art. Young Marco, the son, obsesses with the languages and stories of global refugees, little understands his own family's curse -- their failure to find contentment far from their homelands. Poignant and sensitive, Faccini evokes a world teeming with lost souls, from the back streets of Paris to the marshlands of the Camargue.

[Teresa D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atmospheric, film material?

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. A very moving narrative and characters that are flawed and interesting.