Middle-aged and war-ravaged in Venice at the close of WWII, American Colonel Richard Catwell finds love with a young Italian countess just as his life is becoming a physical hardship. Spanning only a matter of hours, this exquisite novel is tender, moving, and tragic. Hemingway's last full-length novel published in his lifetime. "Gaines captures the novel's poignancy... [He reads] in the same tone one imagines the author heard while writing it."—AudioFile