Book Giveaway: The Italian Lover

I've been authorized to give away up to five copies. Please read the rules below carefully.

The Italian Lover
by Robert Hellenga
Publisher: Back Bay Books
368p

Margot Harrington's memoir about her discovery in Florence of a priceless masterwork of Renaissance erotica--and the misguided love affair it inspired--is now, 25 years later, being made into a movie. Margot, with the help of her lover, Woody, writes a script that she thinks will validate her life. Of course their script is not used, but never mind--happy endings are the best endings for movies, as Margot eventually comes to see. At the former convent in Florence where "The Sixteen Pleasures"--now called "The Italian Lover,"--is being filmed, Margot enters into a drama she never imagined, where her ideas of home, love, art, and aging collide with the imperatives of commerce and the unknowability of other cultures and other people.

Online Reading Group Guide

Visit: www.roberthellenga.com

RULES:

• Read this carefully. I am sad when I have to disqualify an entry but I do it anyway. Each rule (except for the last one which is Hachette's requirement) is there to assure that the day of the drawing does not consume ten plus hours of my day in chasing down contact info as my first one last summer did.
  
• Leave a comment in this post expressing your interest in entering the drawing. This is the entry.
  
• Provide an @ by which I can contact you in case of a win. Either in your comment or in an email to me at joystory AT gmail DOT com If you email your @ be sure to connect it to your entry comment. If I do not receive an @ your entry will be disqualified.
• If, in the case of a win, you would like me to link to your blog in the winners announcement post, provide your URL in your comment or via email. This is not a requirement for entering nor do you have to have a blog yourself in order to enter.
• If you blog about this giveaway, send me a link to the post and your name will be entered a second time.
• Deadline for entering is NOON PST Saturday February 14, 2009. (Valentine's Day seems appropriate for a title with the word 'lover' in it, right? That's also the same day my contest for the romance Sundays at Tiffany's ends btw go check it out if you haven't already.) I will select the winners with a random number generator using www.random.org
• Winners must provide a US or Canadian mailing address. No PO Boxes.