by Penelope Curtis

Banyuls-sur-Mer, French Catalonia: one hot summer in the 1970s, the lives of three generations of women converge  in the long tropical garden hidden behind the Villa Wintrebert, named after the biologist who lived there with his wife. As in her debut After Nora (2024), Penelope Curtis deftly interweaves fact and fiction in this moving story of childhood and of adult complicity, with Sapphic and melancholy undertones. Harmony beween la belle Eugénie and the young Monique is disrupted when a well-intentioned commission to the renowned local sculptor, Aristide Maillol, shines a light on the fundamental fragility of the women’s relationship, on which the villa and its garden had depended. Decades later, Monique invites Eva and her two little girls into the villa, where traces of the past imprint themselves on the present.

‘A tender, and exquisite novel, Villa Wintrebert's evocation of place, character and female friendship entranced me - I felt I could see the beautiful French villa and its garden and the charmed world enjoyed by the children and their mother.’
– Amanda Craig, author of The Three Graces

‘I was thoroughly beguiled and gently gripped by this ekphrastic novel; what a feat of delicate interweaving.  I found myself fully immersed in the threads of connection, the undertow of emotion between Monique and Eugenie and Eva across time and place, the evocations of betrayal and disappointment.’ 
— Rosie Dastgir, author of A Small Fortune

‘This little book is full of glorious moments, woven from tender memories and quietly beautiful descriptions. It gives shape to the emotional pull of places and people, showing how our deepest attachments become embedded in the landscapes we carry with us.’
— Misha Honcharenko, author of Trap Unfolds Me Greedily

‘Penelope Curtis is a distinguished art historian who has turned to writing fiction, and if that shows in her choice of subject matter, it helps account too for her marvellously precise descriptions of material objects, and a prose rich in inviting similes. This beautifully produced slim volume is looking for quietly discriminating readers interested in how a work of art comes into being, and the memories that live on in its presence. It all but asks for more prosaic, practical, unsubtle interests to be left outside the door.’ — Lesley Chamberlain, author of Rilke: the last inward man

About After Nora:

‘A fascinating European novel in the best sense.’  
–Xiaolu Guo, author of Radical

 ‘This vivid, imagined history is charming and delicate and absolutely hums with life.’
–Kyra Wilder, author of Gloss

Published 3 July 2026
Paperback original
188 pages, 180 × 120 mm
RRP £12.99
ISBN 978-1-0684338-7-0