In a novel rich with erotic twists, like the sensuously entwined dance of mating snakes, Petrie Harbouri weaves a tale of love, lust and death; of rebirth and transformation. "Reality is a false refuge," the reclusive widow Chloe tells her lodger Robert, an Englishman taking time out from responsibilities back home. She employs him to tend her half-wild Mediterranean garden. It is a garden of secrets, abundantly fertile and full of memories. In...