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The Train to Orvieto, set in Orvieto, Florence, and Milan, Italy, and in the heartland of America, is an intimate story of love, loss, betrayal, and reconciliation that unfolds against an historical background of war and dramatic social change. It is a story enacted by fascinating three-dimensional characters and told by one of them, Fina, a history teacher who warns the reader, "The truth never mattered." It is a story depicting the clash of opposites -- the desire for union with another and the need for solitude; loyalty and betrayal; change and tradition; the fatalism of rural Italy and the sense of familial and social duty, as against one's obligations to oneself -- and it explores the classic theme of how the consequences of decisions made in youth carry through the remainder of one's life.