Louis Begley

Reflecting the couples thirty-year love affair with Venice, a series of travel essays pays homage to Italys City of Water, its people, popular local eateries, landscapes, canals, and more, and is accompanied by a novella that describes a young mans brief love affair with an older woman, whose abandonment leads to a lasting love for Venice itself.

Warren Schmidt is at sea after being left a widower shortly after retiring from a lifetime as an actuary at Woodmen of the World Insurance in Omaha, Nebraska. He matter-of-factly explains that, since he is 67, retired, and a widower, he should be dead within nine years--this in a letter to the African boy he is sponsoring through a charitable relief organization. As daughter Jeannie's wedding to waterbed salesman fianc�e Randall looms, Warren sets...