A House in Sicily by Luisa Adorno

During WWII, a young Tuscan woman falls in love with a man from the rural depths of southern Italy. As the conflict finally draws to a close, the two travel from Rome to finally meet with his family. But very quickly a dawning realisation breaks: her in-laws and their friends are eccentric in the extreme. They barely leave the house and they rarely speak to their son, fretting instead about their 'daughter' - a loud little dog - and worrying constantly, incessantly, about the weather. And, worst of all, they speak with a nostalgic warmth about the region's recently overthrown fascist regime.