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Foreign Bodies
At eighteen, Emma Kenward runs away from her dull upper-class home to try her luck as a painter in Tuscany. Waspish, idealistic and far too clever for her own good, she is at the awkward age when women choose their futures - and their identities.Once in Italy, Emma blossoms and is taken up by a mixture of characters, including Sylvia, her volatile American mentor, Dr. Evenlode, an Oxford don she had hoped never to see again; and Lucio, a seductive and anarchic young Italian as interested in Emma's body as in her mind. Santorno, however, is not merely a picturesque town set in the golden landscape of the Tuscan countryside. Hidden among the malicious stories told by provincial gossips and in the walls of the mysterious Palazzo Felici lie secrets, long buried but not forgotten. Emma, ever curious, delves deep and discovers the truth about her new world, her old self - and a gruesome murder.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
11 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Craig
28 books141 followersAmanda Craig (born 1959) is a British novelist. Craig studied at Bedales School and Cambridge and works as a journalist. She is married with two children and lives in London.
Craig has so far published a cycle of six novels which deal with contemporary British society, often in a concise acerbic satirical manner. Her approach to writing fiction has been compared to that of Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens.[1] Her novel A Vicious Circle was originally contracted to be published by Hamish Hamilton, but was cancelled when its proof copy received a libel threat from David Sexton, a literary critic and former boyfriend of Craig's at Cambridge, fifteen years previously.[2] The novel was promptly bought by Fourth Estate and published three months later. Although each novel can be read separately, they are linked to each other by common characters and themes, thus constituting a novel sequence. Usually, Craig takes a minor character and makes him or her the protagonist of her next work.
Craig is particularly interested in children's fiction, and was one of the first critics to praise JK Rowling and Philip Pullman in The New Statesman. She is currently the children's critic for The Times.
Craig has so far published a cycle of six novels which deal with contemporary British society, often in a concise acerbic satirical manner. Her approach to writing fiction has been compared to that of Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens.[1] Her novel A Vicious Circle was originally contracted to be published by Hamish Hamilton, but was cancelled when its proof copy received a libel threat from David Sexton, a literary critic and former boyfriend of Craig's at Cambridge, fifteen years previously.[2] The novel was promptly bought by Fourth Estate and published three months later. Although each novel can be read separately, they are linked to each other by common characters and themes, thus constituting a novel sequence. Usually, Craig takes a minor character and makes him or her the protagonist of her next work.
Craig is particularly interested in children's fiction, and was one of the first critics to praise JK Rowling and Philip Pullman in The New Statesman. She is currently the children's critic for The Times.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 15, 2022
I first read this novel when it was published in 1990 and I was in my early twenties. Reading it again, now I am in my fifties, is a very different experience, but I am glad that I re-visited it.
Emma Kenward is eighteen and feels angry, alienated and resentful towards her middle-class parents. When she is left a small legacy from her beloved grandfather, she decides to run away from home and heads off to stay with her American friend, Sylvia, in Tuscany. Once there, she becomes involved in the ex-pat community, their love affairs, arguments, local arguments and loyalties. Whilst there she runs into Dr Evenlode, who interviewed her at Oxford, a place she is still debating whether to return for after the summer and meets Lucio, with whom she will experience her first passionate affair.
This novel had poor reviews when it first came out, as Emma is not a very sympathetic character. She is waspish, unsure, intelligent, embarrassed - as only the young can be - and opinionated. She feels things as only a young girl can feel them, makes poor choices, discovers love, along with betrayal, friendship and violence.
When I first read this, as a much younger woman, I was more involved with the intensity of Emma's feelings. As the mother of a teenage daughter, I was more affected by Emma's small squeak of 'mummy,' when she is in danger; the mother she constantly derides, clashes and argues with. It was interesting to read this with a different mindset - no longer sympathising so much with the emotional Emma banging the door on her way out, but more with the parents left behind. However, Amanda Craig does bring those younger, raw emotions crashing back. I am glad I have read this again and look forward to reading more by the author.
Emma Kenward is eighteen and feels angry, alienated and resentful towards her middle-class parents. When she is left a small legacy from her beloved grandfather, she decides to run away from home and heads off to stay with her American friend, Sylvia, in Tuscany. Once there, she becomes involved in the ex-pat community, their love affairs, arguments, local arguments and loyalties. Whilst there she runs into Dr Evenlode, who interviewed her at Oxford, a place she is still debating whether to return for after the summer and meets Lucio, with whom she will experience her first passionate affair.
This novel had poor reviews when it first came out, as Emma is not a very sympathetic character. She is waspish, unsure, intelligent, embarrassed - as only the young can be - and opinionated. She feels things as only a young girl can feel them, makes poor choices, discovers love, along with betrayal, friendship and violence.
When I first read this, as a much younger woman, I was more involved with the intensity of Emma's feelings. As the mother of a teenage daughter, I was more affected by Emma's small squeak of 'mummy,' when she is in danger; the mother she constantly derides, clashes and argues with. It was interesting to read this with a different mindset - no longer sympathising so much with the emotional Emma banging the door on her way out, but more with the parents left behind. However, Amanda Craig does bring those younger, raw emotions crashing back. I am glad I have read this again and look forward to reading more by the author.
April 27, 2024
( 2.5) Just like Austin’s eponymous heroine, the Emma in this coming-of-age novel can be irritating, opinionated, self-centred and shockingly rude to those who are trying to help her. She also has her very own Mr Knightly.
I have enjoyed several of Amanda Craig’s later works. You can definitely tell this is a first novel though there are glimpses of the author’s later more sophisticated writing. It started off with some charm but just became annoying. It wasn’t helped either by the number of typos in the kindle version at least.
I have enjoyed several of Amanda Craig’s later works. You can definitely tell this is a first novel though there are glimpses of the author’s later more sophisticated writing. It started off with some charm but just became annoying. It wasn’t helped either by the number of typos in the kindle version at least.
September 4, 2017
Barbara Trapido-esque, with more sex and a little less wit, but hugely enjoyable.
A genuine bildungsroman, not for kids, not watered down; Emma is infuriating and charming and delightful, and one can see the best and worst of oneself in her experiences.
Running away to Italy to stay with the only adult friend she has ever made, Emma learns not only about love, sex, and desires, but also about betrayal, cheating, and the enormous amount of ways people find to hurt each other. Living in a tiny, insular village, she slowly becomes part of the rhythms of life in Tuscany, accepted by the locals and warily embraced by the expats.
She never loses her Englishness or her cleverness, though, and her love affair with the genuinely awful Lucio is painful to witness.
This acceptance becomes a cocoon for Emma, who has been avoiding making a decision about taking up her place at Oxford in the autumn, [work in progress]
A genuine bildungsroman, not for kids, not watered down; Emma is infuriating and charming and delightful, and one can see the best and worst of oneself in her experiences.
Running away to Italy to stay with the only adult friend she has ever made, Emma learns not only about love, sex, and desires, but also about betrayal, cheating, and the enormous amount of ways people find to hurt each other. Living in a tiny, insular village, she slowly becomes part of the rhythms of life in Tuscany, accepted by the locals and warily embraced by the expats.
She never loses her Englishness or her cleverness, though, and her love affair with the genuinely awful Lucio is painful to witness.
This acceptance becomes a cocoon for Emma, who has been avoiding making a decision about taking up her place at Oxford in the autumn, [work in progress]
July 13, 2022
Emma Kenward is 18 and wants to be an artist, she has been left some money by her grandfather, so decides to use it to go and stay in Italy with her American friend Sylvia during the year before she is due to go to Oxford University. Things don’t turn out for Emma quite as she had expected. She meets a variety of characters, including to her dismay, Dr Evenlode, the man who is to tutor her at Oxford, and to whom she has taken a strong dislike. A lot of strange things happen to Emma during her gap year, some very unexpected indeed. This is a very good story with some great characters and wonderful descriptions of Italy. Emma herself is a very interesting heroine with strong opinions and prejudices, some of which are challenged in the course of the story. Very enjoyable.
February 23, 2024
The first in her series of intertwined novels, where every novel takes a minor character from the earlier ones and makes it the centerpiece. This is, by her standards, not magnificent, but still pretty fascinating. The premise here is that the narrator is an 18-year-old girl who runs away from her admission to Oxford to paint in a small village in Italy. We have a shockingly unreliable narrator, as she explains with increasing fervor why all the people that care for her are mean and evil and why she loves and adores those who are so terrible and abusive to her. The side feature is that, as she is a painter, her "eye" for description of light and color is at every possible moment remarkably clear and elegantly descriptive.
January 27, 2024
By promoting minor characters from other books into the main roles, Amanda Craig has come up with an excellent strategy to encourage readers to visit all of her novels. Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that earlier books like this just don’t match up with her later work. This tale of Emma running off to Tuscany to find herself seemed inconsequential and unconvincing. It may share a setting with ‘The Three Graces’ but it has a lot less to tell us.
February 11, 2023
I agree with Goethe that Italy would be more bearable if the Apennines were flattened.
I like a tricky heroine as long as she develops.
Go to Italy to eat and grow up but then get the hell out.
I like a tricky heroine as long as she develops.
Go to Italy to eat and grow up but then get the hell out.
December 24, 2024
Probably about a 100 pages too long. Struggled to get through the last section.
February 12, 2022
lucio = 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
April 1, 2017
Incisive observations made this a charming coming-of-age novel, spiced with romance and suspense and youthful mistakes. The Italian setting is its own character.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews