Nymph

Ten-year-old Leo spends her mornings tidying the rooms of her nonna’s time-worn Italian hotel, quietly accumulating the junk and treasures left behind by guests—a pearl earring, a lock of hair. Her nights are suffused with her father’s liquor-spun tales of his childhood, mingled with stories of Greek heroes of old.

Years later, over another hot, endless Italian summer, the hotel is one of the only things in Leo’s life that has remained constant. An accident has knocked her family sideways; her brother Max is distant, and Nonna has grown frail. But then she meets Dolores, a young American woman who sets something alight in Leo that she didn’t know existed.

Heat-soaked, sensual and steeped in an exquisite longing, Nymph traverses the extraordinary pains, soaring pleasures and many metamorphoses it takes to finally grow up.

‘A sensual queer Bildungsroman. With shades of Call Me By Your Name, this portrait of self-discovery is drawn with vivid authenticity and attention to emotional detail.’ Age

'Nymph is soft and sweet and hot and pungent and textured and strange and lovely...a perfect summer read...I’ll be thinking about it for a very long time.’ Literary Hub

‘A sweet, slow-burn story of self-discovery and community that reminded me why coming-of-age stories are so compelling.’ Readings

'Together, Leo and Dolores play cards, swim, eat slivers of prosciutto and ponder the universe...It’s this tender and transformative stage of life that Nymph captures with moving precision.’ ABC