Grand Canal

By the Grand Canal , By William Rivière, Grove, 288 pp., $24 William Rivière's "By the Grand Canal" ventures into territory staked out by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Woolf, and Remarque. Set in post-World War I Venice, Rivière's tale follows the fortunes of a small group of friends, each of whom struggles with loss and disorientation. The characters brood over the past, reassess relationships, and search for romance and redemption. The pleasures of Venice help to ease their burdens.

VENICE - Whether we go to Paris, or London, or Buenos Aires, or Bangkok, we all register the existence of two incarnations of each of these places: There is the city geared to tourists. And then there is the "real" one, the one negotiated by its inhabitants. Even as we gratefully submit to the former, we yearn for the latter. Venice is different. Yes, it's the most unlikely, the most mysterious, the most heart-stoppingly beautiful city in the world. But it's also the most overrun: by tides, by crowds, and increasingly by commerce.

FRIDAY 1 p.m. Cannaregio check-in Le Mansarde B&B Rio Terra San Leonardo 1353/c 011-39-041-718826 cazzar.ola@libero.it Lodgings at this 18th-century palazzo have cooking facilities. $120-$145. 2 p.m. Join the crowd Basilica di San Marco Piazza San Marco 011-39-041-522-5205 View the interior of one of the most beautiful churches in Italy. 4 p.m. Dragonslayer Scuola Dalmata di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni Castello 3259/a, Calle dei Furlani 011-39-041-522-8828 Renaissance oratory contains paintings of St. George and the dragon.

Delirium By Laura RestrepoTranslated, from the Spanish, by Natasha Wimmer Doubleday, 320 pp., $23.95 In this multivocal maelstrom of a novel by the Colombian journalist and fiction writer Laura Restrepo, Aguilar, an out-of-work literature professor reduced to selling dog food for a living, returns home to Bogotá after a sales trip to find that his beautiful young wife, Agustina, has lost her mind. Her madness will test his love as he struggles frantically to fetch her back from the abyss.

VENICE - Whether we go to Paris, or London, or Buenos Aires, or Bangkok, we all register the existence of two incarnations of each of these places: There is the city geared to tourists. And then there is the "real" one, the one negotiated by its inhabitants. Even as we gratefully submit to the former, we yearn for the latter. Venice is different. Yes, it's the most unlikely, the most mysterious, the most heart-stoppingly beautiful city in the world. But it's also the most overrun: by tides, by crowds, and increasingly by commerce.

Delirium By Laura RestrepoTranslated, from the Spanish, by Natasha Wimmer Doubleday, 320 pp., $23.95 In this multivocal maelstrom of a novel by the Colombian journalist and fiction writer Laura Restrepo, Aguilar, an out-of-work literature professor reduced to selling dog food for a living, returns home to Bogotá after a sales trip to find that his beautiful young wife, Agustina, has lost her mind. Her madness will test his love as he struggles frantically to fetch her back from the abyss.

VENICE -- When travelers seek out her little bed-and-breakfast in the mainly residential Cannaregio neighborhood, Anna Maria Andreola assumes that they want to experience everyday life in this ancient marshland city huddled around its canals. "Gondolas are too expensive; they're for tourists," she says as she spreads out a map and points out neighborhood landmarks and favorite restaurants. To get around the city, she advises, "Ride the No. 1 vaporetto. " As the ferry travels the length of the Grand Canal, passengers have the perfect waterside vantage on the crumbling pastel palazzi on the...

SEOUL - Conservatives allied with South Korea's president won a parliamentary majority today, boosting the government's plans to revive the economy, embrace the United States, and talk tougher with North Korea. President Lee Myung-bak, a former Seoul mayor and Hyundai executive, took power in February pledging to streamline government, tear down barriers for business and restore ties with Washington that frayed under a decade of liberal rule. The win by his Grand National Party in Wednesday's parliamentary vote...

VENICE -- Anna Maria Andreola's first lesson is that a freezer is good for ice cream and ice cubes and not much else. "I shop every day," she says with a shrug as she leads us off to Rialto market early in the morning. The foray is part of the package that Andreola offers at Le Mansarde, her small bed-and-breakfast located in the 18th-century palazzo where she was born. Not only do guests get a room or apartment with cooking facilities, they also get a cooking lesson. And cooking begins with shopping.

John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler , Claude Monet, Henry James, Robert Browning: They were among the members of the international intelligentsia who congregated at the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal in Venice at the end of the 19th century. There's evidence aplenty of their visits, in the form of painting and writing. Their canvases and quotes from their books make up the "Gondola Days" exhibition that is the culminating event of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's centennial -- which was actually in 2003.

FRIDAY 1 p.m. Cannaregio check-in Le Mansarde B&B Rio Terra San Leonardo 1353/c 011-39-041-718826 cazzar.ola@libero.it Lodgings at this 18th-century palazzo have cooking facilities. $120-$145. 2 p.m. Join the crowd Basilica di San Marco Piazza San Marco 011-39-041-522-5205 View the interior of one of the most beautiful churches in Italy. 4 p.m. Dragonslayer Scuola Dalmata di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni Castello 3259/a, Calle dei Furlani 011-39-041-522-8828 Renaissance oratory contains paintings of St. George and the dragon.

VENICE -- When travelers seek out her little bed-and-breakfast in the mainly residential Cannaregio neighborhood, Anna Maria Andreola assumes that they want to experience everyday life in this ancient marshland city huddled around its canals. "Gondolas are too expensive; they're for tourists," she says as she spreads out a map and points out neighborhood landmarks and favorite restaurants. To get around the city, she advises, "Ride the No. 1 vaporetto. " As the ferry travels the length of the Grand Canal, passengers have the perfect waterside vantage on the crumbling pastel palazzi on the...

By the Grand Canal , By William Rivière, Grove, 288 pp., $24 William Rivière's "By the Grand Canal" ventures into territory staked out by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Woolf, and Remarque. Set in post-World War I Venice, Rivière's tale follows the fortunes of a small group of friends, each of whom struggles with loss and disorientation. The characters brood over the past, reassess relationships, and search for romance and redemption. The pleasures of Venice help to ease their burdens.

LONDON -- A slew of books about travel to England, Ireland, and Scotland can help in planning every aspect of a trip to the region -- from traveling with children to shopping to woodland strolls. "The Rough Guide to Walks in London & Southeast England," by Judith Bamber and Helena Smith (Rough Guides, $13.95), outlines green places to stroll in the London region (parks, gardens, and along canals, rivers, and railroad tracks), as well as day trips using public transportation.

CAMBRIDGE -- Like pale jewels glinting in the light, the first works you see when you step into "American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950" are Edward Hopper watercolors: "Highland Light" (1930), "Cold Storage Plant" (1933), and "Jenness House, Truro" (1934). The intimate and sparkling exhibition, up at the Fogg Art Museum, highlights Harvard University's rich collection of watercolors and pastels, from Winslow Homer to Willem de Kooning, with a few loans to flesh out the show.