''The Bay of Noon'' is a 1970 novel by the Australian author

Shirley Hazzard Shirley Hazzard (30 January 1931 – 12 December 2016) was an Australian-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She was born in Australia and also held U.S. citizenship. Hazzard's 1970 novel ''The Bay of Noon'' was shortlisted f ...

. It was shortlisted for the

Lost Man Booker Prize The Lost Man Booker Prize was a special edition of the Man Booker Prize awarded by a public vote in 2010 to a novel from 1970 as the books published in 1970 were not eligible for the Man Booker Prize due to a rules alteration; until 1970 the priz ...

in 2010.

Synopsis

A young Englishwoman, Jenny, is working in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

some years after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Alone in the ruined city, she follows up a letter of introduction from an acquaintance, through which she meets Gioconda, a beautiful and gifted writer, and her lover Gianni, a noted Roman film director. Meanwhile, at work she meets Justin, a Scotsman whose inscrutability Jenny finds mysteriously attractive. As Jenny becomes increasingly drawn into the lives of the three, she discovers that the past is not easily forgotten.

References

1970 Australian novels Little, Brown and Company books Novels set in Naples {{1970s-novel-stub