I guess you could call me vindictive, malicious, callous. But he didn’t deserve the culmination of our life’s work together when he had chosen to throw that life away.
‘That was the necklace you were looking for, right Sarah? Can you believe they found it?’ Reina asks me, snapping me out of my deep thoughts.
‘No, I can’t,’ I say, even though of course it was all part of my plan that it would be found eventually. ‘It’s a real pity that Marco never got to have this moment. He worked so hard and drove himself to the point of insanity trying to get it.’
‘Well, at least now that it has been found a chapter of history has closed, and you too can put it behind you,’ Reina says warmly.
She’s right. There are no more loose ends. The necklace will be returned to the people of Naples, who will soon learn of its journey to that point but never know the part that was edited out – my link in the chain of its history. A modern-day tale of marital infidelity. An act of female empowerment. A keeper of the jewel determined not to have its past tainted by her husband’s hands. I am its secret history.
‘Well, after that, perhaps we all need another drink,’ Phil says, interrupting my thoughts. We follow him to the bar as he orders another round of beer for all.
There’s a mirrored glass splashback behind the bar, and I catch my reflection as we wait for the drinks. My long red hair is pulled into a ponytail that falls over my shoulder. I’m wearing a khaki top that makes my eyes look a deep emerald green.
I instinctively clasp the pendant hanging from a chain on my neck and then drop my hand as the golden hues of sunset bounce off the mirror and onto the single glimmering diamond. Sparkling, shimmering, flawless.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book is a work of fiction inspired by the real San Gennaro necklace, but the tale of its disappearance is entirely imagined.
It is true that the necklace was made in 1679 in honour of the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, by goldsmith Michele Dato with the aid of other craftsmen, to drape around the saint’s reliquary bust. It consists of 700 diamonds, 276 rubies and 92 emeralds, and is considered to be one of the most precious pieces of jewellery in the world. However, I invented its monetary value for the purposes of the novel.
The necklace is one of over 21,000 items that form part of a treasure dedicated to San Gennaro, a Christian martyr. Today the treasure stands as one of the most important and valuable collections of religious art that, collectively, is said to be worth more than the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.
Thirteen gold links form the base of the necklace, which was added to over the centuries, until 1929, by numerous sovereigns passing through or ruling over Naples. What drew my initial interest to the exquisite necklace was that each addition of an ornate piece of jewellery tells a story of European history.
Today, the necklace is kept in the Museum of the San Gennaro Treasure, which is situated next to the Cathedral of Naples.
The history of the treasure began on 13 January 1527, during the plague, when the Neapolitans made a vow to San Gennaro that, in exchange for the saint’s protection against the plague, war, poverty, shipwrecks and eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, the people of Naples would maintain a treasure in a chapel especially built for him within the cathedral.
San Gennaro was born in Naples in the second half of the third century. According to tradition, after he was beheaded for professing the Christian faith, a devout woman collected the martyr’s blood and preserved it in two vials. Three times a year, a ritual is held where the saint’s blood is believed to miraculously liquefy and then coagulate again.
The first recorded reference to the liquefaction of his blood was in 1389. Since then, however, there have been times when the blood miracle failed to occur, which is seen as a harbinger of calamities to come. Among these historical occasions was in 1939, the year World War II started; in 1973, the year a cholera epidemic broke out in Naples; and in 1980, the year of the deadly Irpinia earthquake. Most recently, on 16 December 2016, the blood was not observed to liquefy, which followers interpreted as a sign of impending disaster.
I have based the fictional journey of the necklace on some true historical events.
In the mid-1770s, the French were at the height of their fascination with antiquities. So much so that, before departing on his first Italian campaign, emperor Napoleon Bonaparte assigned a number of renowned artists to join his army with the goal of collecting monuments of the arts and sciences when they looted Italian museums. In 1796 the army entered the north of Italy, progressing down the Italian peninsula and stealing classical artefacts and Renaissance works of art. The collection of stolen pieces was so profuse that, in 1797, a French arts commission was established.
However, unlike as depicted in my novel, when the French reached Naples, they did not arrive to find the San Gennaro necklace gone. Instead, Napoleon decided to donate a cross of diamonds and emeralds to it, a feature that can be seen on the necklace today.
It is true that the royal family did flee Naples in 1798, taking with them artefacts from Pompeii and the Herculaneum papyri, but they did not summons for the San Gennaro necklace.
Sir William Hamilton, a Scottish diplomat and archaeologist serving as British ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples, crated his collection of statuary, objects and ancient vases. King Ferdinand and his wife Maria Carolina also packed their precious belongings, including the crown jewels and their collection of statues and objects from Pompeii. On Christmas Eve they set sail, and their abandonment signalled a revolution in Naples.
The monarchs arrived safely to Sicily but the second English ship, the Colossus, which carried Hamilton’s collection of ancient vases, sank in a storm off the Scilly Isles during its rough voyage across the high seas. In 1974, 176 years after the ship sank, around 30,000 fragments of those vases were found off the island of Samson and are now held in the collection of the British Museum.
I’d like to acknowledge the remarkable book Pompeii Awakened: A story of rediscovery, by Judith Harris, for being an excellent resource during my research.
My inspiration for Marco Moretti’s childhood home was the real public housing disaster known as Vele di Scampìa, which means the Sails of Scampìa in English – a reference to the triangular-shaped buildings, reminiscent of a sail. This residential project was designed and built by Italian architect Franz di Salvo between 1962 and 1975, and consisted of seven massive apartment blocks that provided low-cost housing. Three of the blocks have since been demolished, with plans for three more to go by the end of 2018.
The original goal for the buildings was to create a community with meeting places, public transport, playing fields and other facilities, but these never materialised. Instead, soon after its completion, living conditions began to deteriorate, and were made worse in 1980 when the Irpinia earthquake struck Naples and squatters moved in. With the notorious Camorra gangs controlling the Scampìa area, it soon became a major centre for drug trafficking and illegal activities, and still is today.
Vincivoli Castle is entirely fictional, as is Yallambee rock shelter.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Novel writing can be a bit like archaeology. Authors are challenged with piecing together a story when sometimes all we have in front of us are fragments.
For helping me sift through the layers, my greatest thanks are to my exceptional publisher and editor, Beverley Cousins, for her astute suggestions, expert guidance and insightful feedback.
Thank you to copyeditor Claire de Medici for strengthening the manuscript and to in-house editor Kathryn Knight for her sharp eye and valuable editorial support. Thanks also to Jessica Malpass, Nerrilee Weir and the great team at Penguin Random House, along with my literary agent Sandy Wagner, for championing my novel and for being such a delight to work with.
In the archaeological field, I am indebted to archaeologist Dr Ted Robinson, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, who answered my endless questions and even dug me out of a few dile
mmas.
For explaining traumatic brain injuries and how memory can be impacted, a big thanks goes to Dr Carly Oboudiyat, a brilliant behavioural neurologist who I met a decade ago while studying psychology at the University of Miami.
I am grateful to Sabrina Vecchi, an officer in the Polizia Municipale of Lerici, Liguria, for answering my questions on the carabinieri and Italian police force, and to Dr Andrea Garfagnini for kindly translating our correspondence back and forth. Thanks also to Australian television producer and former officer Mike Whyte for letting me pick his brain about police procedure.
For kindly assisting with the Italian translations, thanks to Filippo Capuano, a talented Sydney-based jeweller originally from Catania in Sicily, and to Gaetano Giustiniani, a Neapolitan living abroad in Australia.
I want to express my gratitude to one of my favourite authors, Janet Fitch, for allowing me to use a paragraph from her remarkable novel White Oleander as an epigraph.
To my parents, Joe and Lauren Landsman, thanks for your support and for the babysitting hours that allowed me the precious gift of time to write this. Also on babysitting rotation, heartfelt gratitude to my mother-in-law Diane Clennar, who was my first reader and helpful sounding-board yet again.
To my loyal friends and hand-holders, thanks for your unwavering support and encouragement.
Finally, I have to thank my boys, who are the precious gems in my life, starting with my loyal canine companion Harley, who sat by my side for every word I wrote and is by far my best listener.
To my husband Ricky, thanks for your unconditional support, for your insightful early feedback, for your patience every time I disappeared into my fictional world and for being the best reality to return to when I re-entered the real one.
And lastly but most importantly, in the course of writing this novel, I was blessed with the greatest treasure of my lifetime – a son. Thank you Jamie for being a welcome distraction and for teaching me what matters most.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lexi Landsman is an Australian author, television producer and journalist. She was born in South Africa and immigrated to Australia with her family at the age of eleven.
She began her career working as a print journalist, progressing to a newspaper editor of arts, books and lifestyle. She then moved into commercial television as a producer of factual and reality shows. She has worked on a range of award-winning documentary series that have aired in Australia and internationally.
Lexi has a Masters in Journalism and degrees in Media Arts and Production, and Drama Teaching. She has studied at the University of Sydney, the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of New South Wales and abroad at the University of Miami.
She lives in Sydney with her husband, their son and their dog.
Her debut novel, The Ties That Bind, was released in 2016. The Perfect Couple is her second book.
ALSO BY LEXI LANDSMAN
The Ties That Bind
On opposite sides of the world, two lives are changed forever. One by the smallest bruise. The other by a devastating bushfire. And both by a shocking secret …
Miami art curator Courtney Hamilton and her husband David live the perfect life until their ten-year-old son Matthew is diagnosed with leukaemia. He needs a bone-marrow transplant but, with Courtney being adopted, the chances of finding a match within his family are slim.
Desperate to find a donor, Courtney tracks the scattered details of her birth 15,000 kilometres away, to the remote town of Somerset in the Victorian bush.
Meanwhile, Jade Taylor wakes up in hospital in Somerset having survived the deadly bushfire that destroyed the family home and their beloved olive groves. Gone too are the landmarks that remind her of her mother, Asha, a woman whose repeated absences scarred her childhood.
As Jade rallies her fractured family to rebuild their lives, Courtney arrives in the burnt countryside to search for her lost parents – but discovers far more than she ever imagined …
The Ties That Bind is an emotionally riveting novel about the power of a mother’s love and the bonds among family that, though severed, can never be fully broken.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Penguin Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
The Perfect Couple
ePub ISBN – 9781925324105
First published by Bantam in 2017
Copyright © Lexi Landsman 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A Bantam book
Published by Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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Addresses for the Penguin Random House group of companies can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com/offices.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Landsman, Lexi, author.
The perfect couple / Lexi Landsman
ISBN 978 1 92532 4 105 (ebook : epub)
Family secrets – Fiction
Traffic accidents – Fiction
Romance fiction
Cover photography by PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images (front) and Mr. Lomein/Getty Images (back)
Cover design by www.blacksheep-uk.com
Ebook by Firstsource
The Perfect Couple Page 32