Georges Wilson

Sandro is a Roman adrift in Venice during Carnival. As he enters midlife, he argues with his wife of sixteen years more often than they laugh or make love. She's had enough of his moods, so they separate so he can sort out his mind. His first night away, he sees a photograph of a nude; the image resembles his wife. He searches for the model, whose name is Riri. He finds her, and she looks exactly like his wife, except that Riri is a gaily attired prostitute and Laura is a self-contained antiquarian bookseller. Are they two women, are they one, and in the masquerade of Carnival, what is real?

The young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a King's musketeer. He meets and quarrels with three men, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel. D'Artagnan finds out they are musketeers and is invited to join them in their efforts to oppose Cardinal Richelieu, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the King. D'Artagnan must also juggle affairs with the charming Constance Bonancieux and the passionate Lady De Winter, a secret agent for the Cardinal.

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"