Wind Shift — Andrea De Carlo

Two men and two women -- successful Milanese professionals and lifelong friends -- set off on an urbane mission from Milan with their estate agent, determined to discover Umbrian properties to buy and renovate into luxurious country homes. But as darkness descends and the roads become narrower, the travelers' concentration wanes, and they find themselves lost, their car in a ditch, and their cell phones without coverage, in the Umbrian rain. From these simple but ominous beginnings, De Carlo's novel grows into a broad, ambitious, and unsettling exploration of modern urban values. When they fall into the hands of an aggressive agri-naturist community, perspectives shift between the five protagonists as a tense series of events forces the characters to reevaluate every principle, belief, and thought they have ever held to be true. A jaunt into the Italian countryside becomes a harrowing journey into the soul.