Cara Massimina

Bored and broke, Morris Duckworth, an English teacher in Verona, stumbles on a plan for financial salvation - to marry Massimina, one of his lovelier students.
And if his intentions are frustrated by a suspicious, conservative family, is it any fault of his that the girl chooses to elope?
Obsessed by self-advancement and excitement, Morris's dreams of blackmail, theft and murder plunge him deep into a chilling nightmare of deception and violence.

Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. In 1981 he moved to Italy where he has lived ever since. He is the author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, Cleaver, A Season with Verona and Teach Us to Sit Still. He has won the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Llewellyn Rhys awards, and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He lectures on literary translation in Milan, writes for publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and his many translations from the Italian include works by Moravia, Calvino, Calasso, Tabucchi and Machiavelli.