The compelling and erotic story of a love affair between a young man and an older woman in Taormina, Sicily, in the sixties.
'This is my only story. Now that I am sixty I can tell it.'
He, the narrator, is a twenty-one-year-old American art student travelling the world. She is a countess - apparently cold, haughty and inaccessible. And with her is the doctor Haroun, her gay travelling companion. When he makes their acquaintance at the Palazzo D'Oro, the narrator finds himself filled with unexpected lust and playing a part in something he doesn't quite understand. Finally, aged sixty, he returns to Taormina to tell his story and confront the present.
Filled with Theroux's typically effortless but devastating depictions of place, 'The Stranger At The Palazzo D'Oro' is a brilliant portrayal of ageing and decay, and a shocking tale of nostalgia and sensuality in a golden age.
