The Pure Weight of the Heart
Antonella Gambotto-Burke
 The novel, narrated in first person and divided into three volumes, is the story of Angelica Botticelli, an Italian-born Australian, and astrophysicist from an apparently wealthy background. Born in Italy to an Austrian mother and Italian father, Angelica is a troubled woman in search of love: "From birth, Angelica is destined to fall in love with an angel. At ten, her blissful childhood is destroyed by the death of her father. Only the stars in the sky at night give her hope. Years later, the adult Angelica, beautiful and gifted, and still a student of the stars, drifts through a world of glamour, power and cruelty, until the night she finally finds her angel, in the heart of the extravagance she has come to despise." (Antonella Gambotto, The Pure Weight Of The Heart, blurb, Orion Publishing 1998) The novel is divided into three volumes, and the title of each volume directly refers to its main theme: Book One: Grief is a Sphere, which details her childhood, adolescence and reaction to her father&#39;s murder. Book Two: A Lycanthropic God, which details her move back to Sydney from London, secretly hostile relationship with her bogan flatmate, Caroline Brine, and discovery of her &#34;angel&#34;, the aptly named Gabriel (his surname, Lagen, is an anagram of &#34;angel&#34;), and their ensuing relationship. Book Three: The Bestiary, which details a trip to Chicago to see her mother, brother and mother&#39;s second husband, the truly vile Aldo Belva (&#34;belva&#34; means &#34;beast&#34; in Italian), and the characters attending the week-long party, who form &#34;The Bestiary&#34; for which the volume is named.