"What the Body Requires is to the mind what chocolate is to the tongue -- rich and decadent." -Carolyn Szczepanski, for The Pitch "...highly ambitious and of the deepest seriousness...with an evocative prose and an exotic, vividly imagined landscape. The consistency with which the writing invests everyday actions and objects with an almost erotic fervor is truly extraordinary...." -- R.M. Berry, author of Leonardo's Horse, Dictionary of Modern Anguish, and Frank Police lieutenant Massimo Benevento is desperate to escape his ill-fitting occupation and the gloomy Italian suburb he patrols. When a beautiful American painter moves into the tower of a local villa, Massimo imagines her as his pathway to freedom. But she has come to kill her husband, a handsome musician she believes has run off to Europe with another woman. The husband's uncanny resemblance to Massimo creates a plot thick with sexual hijinks and erotic intrigue. An engaging cast of misfits, unforgettable settings, and sumptuous writing propel What the Body Requires to a contemporary literary classic. With illustrations by Debra Di Blasi.