Isabel Gravitt

Stranded in the open sea after a fatal accident, a young woman and her two friends are rescued by a fishing vessel's captain, unaware that the ship harbors a chilling secret.

Ominous letters. Strange neighbors. Sinister threats. A family moves into their suburban dream home, only to discover they've inherited a nightmare.

20-year-old Lucy Cunningham has never kissed a boy, never had a job, and never really had friends. Her best — and perhaps only — friend is her mother Claire, who has shielded her from all the bad in the world, including Claire’s own terminal illness. Claire's no-BS sister, Kerri, urges Claire to break her silence and tell Lucy the truth before it's too late.Lucy, aware that something is up with Mom, leaps into adulthood and Vespas to Cleveland for an ill-fated job interview. There, she stumbles into a bizarre and wonderful festival of the films of Federico Fellini, the great Italian director, where she sees his Oscar-winning “La Strada”(1954) and is instantly swept away. But this movie doesn't have the happy ending she's used to, and the cleverly enigmatic tragicomedy leaves Lucy restless and aching for answers. In a burst of courage, she leaves her small-town home to find the filmmaker and unlock his mysterious enigma and her own.What follows is a strange and spectacular journey through the romantic dreamscapes of Italy, as Lucy encounters not just characters from Fellini's films, but the fantasies and nightmares that defined him. Her journey of discovery and life, counterpoints Claire's gradual decline into death. Apart but connected, they fulfill both of their dreams as truth and fiction intertwine into the ultimate Felliniesque journey.