I’m pleased to be welcoming Lucy Elena to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Starling Dance.

In a sweltering Roman summer, Laure is trying to start a new life. But can she manage in a city where walls have ears, trees have eyes and even the birds are acting strangely?

It’s been exactly one year since the shit hit the fan and Laure’s anxiety exploded into a full-blown burn out. In search of a new start she’s moved to Rome – pasta, Aperol and sunshine should make everything better, right?

But with her 30s around the corner, la bella vita isn’t going to plan.

1. Her boyfriend, the dreamy Davide, has disappeared (Either Laure’s been ghosted or he’s accidentally fallen off a cliff – hopefully)
2. She wants to murder her neighbours: their arguments are keeping her up all night.

In her local café, Laure meets a handsome stranger and the sparks fly, that is until she finds herself caught in a big lie.

‘Hmmm, it’s not ideal,’ says her best friend Eva, as she puffs on a spliff in the bathtub.

Just as things are heating up, a talking tree enters the fray (as if this Roman summer wasn’t weird enough, just ask the birds).

That tree is Viviano, a dynamic and adventurous street performer who poses around the Eternal City dressed as a tree, well, sometimes a cat too and sometimes a ripe tomato. He could be thriving in life but something is holding him back. One thing is certain though: he wants to meet Laure.

Will Laure find her path? Will she accidentally put pineapple on a pizza? And is there a real love story to be found in the surreal swirls of the Italian capital?

The Starling Dance is a love story full of quirk, humour and heart-warming characters, each trying to overcome their personal obstacles and demons to give themselves a chance at life and love.

Lucy Elena is a journalist who has worked across Europe and Latin America. The Starling Dance is her debut novel. It was initially dreamt up as a film while Lucy was working in Rome and became interested in the street artists she passed every day on her way to work, eventually getting to know them. The artsy film of her imagination never materialised but The Starling Dance was born in the form of a book, with a big dose of love, fun and healing thrown in for good measure.

*****

Lucy Elena has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy it. 

*****beginning of extract*****

In this extract our main male character, street performer Viviano, has come to meet his friends at Rome’s picturesque Gianicolo Hil. It’s a chance for the reader to get to know Viviano better and see him in a more relaxed environment, on days when his mental health challenges are not flaring up. Even in the company of his friends, Laure – Viviano’s love interest, is never far from his mind. We also learn a bit more about Viviano’s best friend Mickey, a migrant from Senegal.  

Viviano leapt high above the city skyline and landed on the thin elastic band. Up and down he bounced until the rush of adrenaline had worn off and a steady balance returned.

The scent of pine perfumed the air and, in the distance, Rome’s jigsaw of buildings stretched for miles, shrouded in a golden pink light.

Viviano had spent the day dressed as a caramel-coloured cat, attaching his slackline between buildings and balancing for hours in various feline poses. Occasionally, he performed a trick or purred at passers-by – Leonardo the cat was always a crowd pleaser.

But work was over now. With three friends – Mickey, Juan Pablo and Elena – he had ventured up to the top of the Gianicolo Hill, a viewpoint over the whole city.

As was customary, they had tied the slackline daringly high between two large parasol pines. The concentration needed to maintain balance challenged Viviano, forcing his mind to focus. Today he was working on a backflip.

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