Kate Holden's bestselling memoir In My Skin told the gripping story of her slide into heroin addiction and prostitution-and her gruelling recovery. The Romantic tells what happened next. When Kate decides to leave her past behind in Melbourne, it is the beginning of a new journey. In the ruins of Rome and the piazzas of Naples, through poetry and passion, in strange streets and strange beds, she hopes to find truth. But this pilgrimage requires courage: in Italy she may find true love, or lose her heart altogether. Or even find herself. Sexy, dark and intoxicating, The Romantic asks: when you've traded in sex, what does it cost to love others-and yourself? 'A sensual, sexy, brutally honest memoir.' Marie Claire Kate Holden is the author of In My Skin: A memoir and The Romantic: Italian Nights and Days, published by Text. For six years she wrote a column for The Age and has published essays, short stories, and reviews in Griffith Review, Meanjin, The Weekend Australian, The Monthly, The Saturday Paper and others.