A new novel from the author of the world bestseller “Food of Love.” Spring 1944. Half-destroyed, hungry and impoverished Naples, Anglo-American allied troops have just landed on the coast. With the departure of the German army and the arrival of the Allies, little changed in the ruined life of the Italians. Men are at war, many are killed, there is no work. Young Italian women are forced to earn a living through prostitution and seek to marry an English or American military man in search of a better life. The military authorities, fearing the spread of venereal diseases, are trying to put a barrier in the way of such marriages. British Army Captain James Gould, who has assumed the duties of a “marriage officer,” conducts a rigorous selection among applicants for marriage...