This is a completely captivating read. Four women (strangers) end up renting a small castle in Italy for the month of April. Arnim shows how being submerged in sunshine and beauty, and being away from anyone who knows them, allows the women to heal and blossom. The novel is very romantic and has an improbable fairytale ending but it is satisfying and uplifting.
The Enchanted April has a lot to say about life; how people drift into being a certain way, become who they are treated as or flourish under attention and interest and how taking yourself out of your life for a while can give perspective and potentially avert or reverse a crisis. It is based in truth; Arnim went to stay with a friend, in Italy for April after the breakup of her marriage and it is this wish for healing that really comes across in the novel.
