Elizabeth McPhee writes fiction about women, secrets, and beautiful places that are not as innocent as they appear.

Her novels are set in Italy and other European countries, among old houses, villages, vineyards, archives, churches, family histories, and rooms where the most important thing is often the thing no one says aloud. She is interested in the moment when a life begins to loosen from its official story, when a woman sees that what she has been told may not be true, and that the past has been waiting for her longer than she knew.

Her fiction is atmospheric, psychologically alert, and shaped by the tension between beauty and concealment. A landscape may be lovely and dangerous at the same time. A family may be devoted to a story that protects the wrong person. A village may welcome a stranger while guarding the one truth she has come close to finding.

McPhee lives between Italy and the United States, with much of her time spent in Treviso, in the Veneto, between Venice and the Prosecco hills where her books are set.