When the past comes to your door, what can you do except let it in?

Gina's life is good. She is independent. She loves her adopted home in Italy and she is passionate about her work as a photographer. Maybe her lover isn't all she might hope and her beautiful apartment is in need of repair, but you can't have everything all the time. And anyway, she's all wrapped up in her latest artistic project, shots of the young men who arrive in Italy as refugees, destitute and vulnerable.

Until one day, Sasha, a lonely British teenager at summer school, crosses Gina's path, and unwittingly sets her world spinning. Sasha's innocent romance creates complications neither of them could have imagined, leading Gina to wonder, can she come to terms with her past?

In the vein of Marian Keyes or Celia Ahern, this is the perfect summer read: touching, sun-drenched and, ultimately, inspirational.

Penny Feeny