On Tour 05/08/25-06/28/25 “The Red House” by Mary Morris

Release Date: May 13, 2025

About The Book:

Thirty years ago, Laura’s mother, Viola, went missing. She left behind her purse, her keys and her mysterious paintings of a red house. Viola was never found, and her family never recovered. Laura, an artist herself, held on to the paintings. On the back of each work, her mother scrawled in Italian, “I will not be here forever.” The family never understood what Viola meant.

Decades later, at a crossroads in her marriage and her life, Laura returns to Italy, where her parents met after World War II. Laura spent the earliest years of her childhood there before the family moved to New Jersey and settled into an American dream that eventually became a nightmare. Viola, who claimed to be an orphan, staunchly refused to speak of her life before marriage.

In Italy, Laura finds herself on a strange scavenger hunt to solve the puzzle of her mother’s lost years. She is certain that the paintings of the red house hold the answer to her mother’s past and her search takes her from her hometown of Brindisi, deep into Puglia where she encounters a man who knew her mother and who illuminates little-known secrets of Italy’s Second World War.

Blending elements of true crime with settings that evoke Elena Ferrante, Laura follows her mother’s trajectory as she ventures north to Naples, Turin and finally home. Along the way, she confronts the dark truth of her mother’s story and at last makes sense of her own.

About The Author:

MARY MORRIS is the author of numerous works of fiction, including the novels Gateway to the Moon, The Jazz Palace, A Mother’s Love, and House Arrest, and of nonfiction, including the travel classic Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone. Morris is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature and the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. https://www.marymorris.net/

Social Media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marymorriswriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryMorrisAuthor/

X: https://x.com/mmorris14

Book Blurbs:

In The Red House, Mary Morris transports readers from the sunlit landscapes of Italy to the shadows of its wartime past as she traces the haunting legacy of a mother’s disappearance. This mesmerizing, beautifully layered novel maps the geography of loss with devastating precision.”—Christina Baker Kline

“You know, when you read Mary Morris, that you will get exquisite writing and vibrant world-building and people that break your heart. But The Red House is even more unforgettable – a mystery of time, place, and character that reveals how the gaps in our personal histories are the ones that somehow become the building blocks of our lives.” — Jodi Picoult

The Red House is a wonderful novel – suspenseful and surprising – with history at its heart. Investigating a painful family mystery – the decades-old disappearance of a mother – leads us into a small town in Puglia and its buried past under fascism. A riveting story.” — Joan Silber

Bloggers On Tour:

May 8th- Cassie’s Book Reviews https://instagram.com/cassies_books_reviews

May 8th- A Court Of spines n pages https://instagram.com/acourtofspinesnpages

May 9th – Lindas Book Obsession https://www.facebook.com/lindasbookobsession/

May 12th- Reading On The Brink https://www.instagram.com/readingonthebrink

May 13th-Tammy Reads https://instagram.com/tammyreads62

May 14th- Art X Souls https://instagram.com/artxsouls

May 15th- CMT Loves Wine and Books https://instagram.com/cmtloveswineandbooks

May 15th- Love My Books 2020 https://instagram.com/lovemybooks2020

May 16th- Reecas Pieces Books https://instagram.com/reecaspiecesbooks

May 19th- 2 Many Books 2 Little Time https://instagram.com/2manybooks2littletime

May 20th- Nissa The Bookworm https://instagram.com/nissa_the.bookworm