The reluctant Tuscan
(Book)

Reprint. Originally published: 2005.

After twenty-five years in Hollywood writing and producing such popular television shows as The Wonder Years and Who's the Boss?, Phil Doran was feeling burned out and pushed out by the younger generation, who considered him a relic in the industry. His wife Nancy, a marble sculptor, was tired of losing her husband to Hollywood, and in a move to save their marriage she dragged Phil--against his will and better judgement--to a tiny village in Italy where she had brought a decrepit, three-hundred-year-old farmhouse for them to restore and call home. What follows is a hilarious tale of how a neurotic workaholic is gradually seduced by Italy's natural charm and inexhaustible beauty--but only after being driven to near collapse by the eccentric neighbors, the maddening bureaucracy, and the crumbling old house that doesn't even have a road leading to it. This is a laugh-out-loud funny, sardonic take on a man who rediscovers himself, his marriage, and gets in touch--at long last--with his inner Italian.