Introduction

A dazzling novel set in the French Riviera based on the real-life inspirations for F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is The Night.

When Sara Wiborg and Gerald Murphy met and married, they set forth to create a beautiful world together-one that they couldn't find within the confines of society life in New York City. They packed up their children and moved to the South of France, where they immediately fell in with a group of expats, including Hemingway, Picasso, and Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.

On the coast of Antibes they built Villa America, a fragrant paradise where they invented summer on the Riviera for a group of bohemian artists and writers who became deeply entwined in each other's affairs. There, in their oasis by the sea, the Murphys regaled their guests and their children with flamboyant beach parties, fiery debates over the newest ideas, and dinners beneath the stars.

It was, for a while, a charmed life, but these were people who kept secrets, and who beneath the sparkling veneer were heartbreakingly human. When a tragic accident brings Owen, a young American aviator who fought in the Great War, to the south of France, he finds himself drawn into this flamboyant circle, and the Murphys find their world irrevocably, unexpectedly transformed.

A handsome, private man, Owen intrigues and unsettles the Murphys, testing the strength of their union and encouraging a hidden side of Gerald to emerge. Suddenly a life in which everything has been considered and exquisitely planned becomes volatile, its safeties breached, the stakes incalculably high. Nothing will remain as it once was.

Liza Klaussman expertly evokes the 1920s cultural scene of the so-called "Lost Generation." Ravishing and affecting, and written with infinite tenderness, VILLA AMERICA is at once the poignant story of a marriage and of a golden age that could not last.

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Excerpt

He took a quick rinse in the bath on the landing, then dressed for the day in his chinos and chambray shirt. The sun was up, but not high, and he went to take his coffee with Auguste.
The Frenchman was already finishing his first café au lait when Owen found him at the zinc counter. Upon Owen’s arrival, Auguste, without a word, prepared the same for Owen and slid it over to him. They stood there in silence, but it was the good kind, and it reminded him of early-morning breakfasts with his mother, who’d also known about quiet. After a bit, Auguste made him a tartine, which Owen wrapped in a napkin and took with him out to his car to eat on the drive. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

What, in your opinion, is the basis of Gerald and Sara’s love for each other? What kind of love is it? Do they both experience it the same way?

On page 334, Sara feels that “Hadley should never have forced [Hemingway] to choose between two kinds of love.” Do you agree with her? Have you ever had to make a similar choice? Discuss.

Throughout the novel, Gerald feels as though he has had to conceal his true self from his friends. Have you ever felt the same way? Do you think those friendships are any less real because of it?

Gerald deeply opposes the strict parenting he experienced as a boy. What do you think of Gerald’s father’s parenting? Of Gerald’s?

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