One Great Lie by Deb Caletti (review)

Charlotte's a senior when she gets accepted to a summer writing program run by her writing idol, Luca Bruni, on a private Venetian island. It's a select group at the glamorous residential program, and they jockey for the attention of Luca, who seems especially inclined to bestow it on the young women. At the same time Charlotte begins to explore the hidden legacy of her ancestor, poet Isabella di Angelo, and the possibility that a revered Italian poet's most famous work was actually written by Isabella. Even as she embarks on a relationship with Dante, a young archivist excited by the possibilities of finding traces of Isabella, she's drawn to Luca. After he finally turns his focus to her, she's shattered by his manifestly predatory behavior and bolts from Venice, eventually joining other women to call him out online, but she's not sure if she will ever get past his impact. Caletti superbly depicts a powerful man accustomed to seduction as a perk of position, and young women (not just Charlotte) taken in by his con job of seeming to find them special and important. The book is also sharply realistic in the casual viciousness of the blowback on Bruni's accusers and on the limited effect their openness seems to have. Chapter headings introduce Italian women writers eclipsed by history, paralleling Charlotte's fictional ancestor and her writing's fate. Readers may find this puts experiences of their own into context, and it will certainly give them insight into the questionable power of celebrity and talent.