Father Luigis Chameleon
by Tara Isabella Burton
Category: Fiction

The priests were faithless, the damned were blessed, the ironies were many, and the comforts were few. The brides were reluctant, the rejected were loved, the idols were demons, and the pitied were strong. - Father Luigi's Chameleon Tara Burton's remarkable first novel, Father Luigi's Chameleon, follows six characters as they face internal struggles during one fateful summer in Italy. The novel, in which this extraordinary eleven-year-old writer explores questions of ethics, values and the nature of love, as well as her unique view of God and the afterlife, was inspired by the often-conflicting philosophies of life she observed growing up in Rome, Paris and New York. Although written by a child, it is not a children's book! Father Luigi s Chameleon is the story of six friends, all living in Rome in the summer of 2002, who retreat to a small island off the coast of Naples in order to come to terms with their own personal demons that are preventing them from achieving happiness. At the root of this, watching over them, is Father Luigi's pet chameleon, Monsieur Amore, who turns out to be more than just a simple reptile in this captivating and thought-provoking modern parable.