Four decades after their passionate and forbidden love affair, Bryan receives an urgent summons from Giulia, descendant of the ancient house of the Farnese di Mongrifone. The couple is plunged into a maelstrom of intrigue and danger, uncovering a closely guarded secret.

On Bryan Cavanagh's birthday, a sealed letter from Rome arrives, bearing the arms of the ancient house of the Farnese di Mongrifone. Affectionate, even imperious, it is a summons from the woman he loved-and lost-in the turbulent, opportunistic world of postwar Europe.

Beset by his memories of an extraordinary voyage on a private yacht on the Mediterranean forty years earlier, Bryan returns to Rome, where he discovers a closely guarded secret.

In The Lovers, Morris West spins a glowing thread of love lost and regained, woven through a rich tapestry of intrigue, betrayal, suspense and murder.

'West is indisputably one of the world's greatest storytellers.' Telegraph Mirror

'The old master has lost none of his way with words.' Daily Express