Austrian author Stefan Zweig  (The Post Office Girl, Beware of Pity and many novellas) was once the world’s most translated author. No wonder. This steaming hot novella about a woman and her whirlwind 24 hour affair with a much younger man is absolutely spellbinding, even more so when you know it was written by a man and almost 90 years ago!

Set in the 1930s in a posh French riviera hotel, guests are scandalised when a fellow female guest elopes with a young man. Our narrator is more forgiving and attracts the attention of  Mrs C, a ‘white-haired, distinguished old English lady’, who has a story of her own. Be prepared for passion guised as compassion and the most beautiful observation of hands that you’ll ever read.

Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Stefan Zweig is published by Pushkin Press, 92 pages.