Sex and vanity

On her very first morning on the jewelHlike

island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao

and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when

he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she

can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that

he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and

she really cant stand it when he kisses her in the darkness

of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by

her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. "Your mother

is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone

like him" Charlotte teases. The daughter of an

American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New

York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of

herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies

having feelings for George. But several years later, when

George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where

Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself

drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinninga web of

deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board

of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately

herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her

world-and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds

of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant

fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring

homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny

comedy of manners set between two cultures.