Ramon, self-styled master storyteller, has steered his listeners down a sinister path littered with love and betrayal, secret police and death squads. But as the Argentinian′s tale nears its startling conclusion, his audience is struck with horror at the possibility that Ramon′s clever invention is nothing more than the cunningly disguised chronicle of his own shadowy past. Is Ramon a gifted artist of the imagination or the perpetrator of a terrible act of revenge that defies all forgiveness?

In the spring of 1945, with the end of the Second World War in sight, a German officer orders the reprisal shooting of eight women in a small alpine village near Lake Como. Nearly fifty years later, in a suburb of Sydney, the daughter of one of the victims discovers her mother's executioner quietly living under an assumed name a few streets away. Aware of the impotence of the law, Colombina is determined to avenge the past. She makes up her mind to confront the old man and make him pay for his crime. Colombina in turn is forced to confront her own past and her own involvement. In Lunch with Mussolini four men meet every Thursday to share their passion for storytelling. Derek Hansen weaves a gripping tale of romance and tragedy, heroism and treachery, which twists and turns to an ending as stunning as it is unexpected.

Once again Ramon, Lucio, Milos and Neil gather at Gancio's restaurant to share lunch and their mutual passion for storytelling. It is Neil's turn to take to the floor but instead Milos demands the right to take precedence. He has no choice, he says, his story has already been too long awaiting the telling. As the story unfolds his friends are horrified to learn the reason for his urgency. This is a novel with a huge range and scope, set within a real historical landscape populated by figures like Adolf Eichmann and the Hungarian and Russian secret police; a story of survival which begins in Hungary but seeks its conclusion in Australia.

Once again, four friends gather to share lunch and their mutual passion for storytelling. It's Neil's turn, and this time the story is distinctly Australian. His admission that it is a true story is the first of many shocks in a story that begins in the Red Ridge country of Northwest NSW, when a city woman rents a farmhouse.