The Banquet: A Novel

A redemptive novel about ambition and motherhood as two sisters bring their families on a Tuscan getaway that will leave their marriages, and relationship with each other, forever altered, from Artifacts author Natalie Lemle, “a spectacular new voice in American fiction” (Adriana Trigiani).

Adult sisters Mariana and Cecily aren’t estranged, but they’re not close, either. A full fourteen years apart, their lives have diverged drastically. After sacrificing her own academic career, Mariana is now a stay-at-home mom whose children are officially leaving the nest, just as her husband, Iggy, has lost his job as a professor, their only source of income. Meanwhile, her younger sister Cecily is a high-powered fashion entrepreneur with two young daughters and seemingly infinite resources thanks to her wealthy, workaholic husband, Dan.

So when they bring their families together for what should be an idyllic Italian vacation at the medieval family estate of Mariana’s old friend Giulia and her husband, Jacopo, tensions simmer from the start. The property is more rustic than romantic, and it’s clear that everyone is just trying to hold it together for the trip’s main event: Siena’s legendary Palio horse race, infamous for its historic familial rivalries and accompanying traditional banquet.

But everything fractures the morning after the banquet when tragedy strikes, and Mariana and Cecily find themselves at the center of an Italian police investigation. Mariana and Cecily, each trying to navigate their own personal crises, are forced to confront the truths about the choices they’ve made and the lives they’ve built—and to ask themselves what their futures might hold, if only they could let them.