The Florentine Entanglement: A Novel of the Cold War

Art student Eleanor has been trapped in fascist Italy since 1939, forced into hiding, camouflaging her identity. At war's end, she meets intelligence officer Talbot who's captivated by her story, her intellect, and her beauty. He believes he can obviate her pervasive melancholy over the dreams the war forced her to abandon.

They marry and head to Washington, DC, where he joins the fledgling CIA and she struggles to find her footing in a city with a rhythm and artistic sensibility so unlike lyrical Florence.

As Talbot rises in the CIA, their marriage frays, and he seeks attention from the string of young secretaries assigned to work for him. He blames his infidelity on Eleanor-her remote nature, her disinterest in him. But when a mission he oversees-the flight of a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union-fails horribly, his unsavory conduct is exposed. His career and his freedom are suddenly in jeopardy. As his life unravels, Eleanor has a choice to make that may require her to reveal explosive secrets of her own.

Heart-pounding historical fiction at its best, Pamela Norsworthy skillfully weaves the gripping story of a teetering marriage into the infamous U-2 incident that redefined the stakes of the Cold War.