Book review: The Venice Hotel by Tess Woods

(Penguin Books, A$34.99) Reviewed by Lesley Reece AM

I read The Venice Hotel after hearing Perth author Tess Woods at the recent Festival of Fiction.

Mindful of Melina Marchetta’s endorsement, I was ready to lose myself in a novel set in one of my favourite cities. I was not disappointed. Woods is a natural storyteller, weaving together the lives of five extraordinarily complex women and five equally complex men in a well-crafted narrative with rapidly escalating tension.

Echoing Donna Leon’s Brunetti novels, Woods love for, and intimate knowledge of, Venice, illuminate every page, assisting the willing suspension of disbelief for each scene. Her characters are as well drawn as Marchetta’s and Maeve Binchy’s, with the revelation of their multiple layers and personal lives making them real and comprehensible.

It is Christmas in Venice, and we meet these characters within the blue walls of the famous boutique Hotel Il Cuore, close to San Marco. As the 12 Days of Christmas progress the reader is drawn inextricably into the lives of these Venetians, Americans and Australians, and the tension which develops within and around them.

The narrative unfolds through the distinctive voices of four of the women: Signora Loretta Bianchi, the renowned owner/chef of the hotel; Sophie, an Australian food journalist; returning Venetian, Elena; and Arkansas grandmother and tourist, Gayle. Each one struggles with her own history allowing Woods to explore, with great sensitivity, several serious threads including domestic violence, infidelity, intolerance, grief, and addiction. Gradually, Loretta, Sophie, Elena, and Gayle are drawn into an unexpected and powerful alliance as they scheme to save one of their own.

Underpinning this intriguing personal narrative is that of Venice, whose glory, while being celebrated on every page, is juxtaposed with its ultimate decline, ravaged by climate change’s rising waters and the ceaseless procession of vast ocean liners and tourists.

Tess Woods is a serious and engaging writer. I eagerly anticipate her next book.