The Provocative Taste of Salt

Three women pass through Lucca Di Vercelli's world. There's Silvana, a beautiful cocaine addict and mother of his daughter. Before her there was Isabelle, the love he lost to tragedy. And there was Liora, Lucca's enduring obsession.

As Silvana demands a divorce, Lucca thinks back on his past, an ephemeral tapestry of personal decisions overlaid with luck, random events, and chance encounters.

Trained by US National Clandestine Services in the depths of the Costa Rican jungle, Lucca's career as a paramilitary operations officer comes to a halt when his unit's funding is canceled. Switching to the shadowy world of for-hire black ops, he finds himself working for an Israeli weapons contractor while moonlighting for a Colombian money-laundering operation.

Liora enters his life through his black ops contacts, although their differing views on religion sabotage their relationship. He meets Isabelle while in hiding, an encounter that forces Lucca to reconsider his path in life. He loves them both, but it's tempestuous atheist Silvana he marries.

Thoughtful and provocative, Luis Bertelsmann's examination of how chance and religion affect life is a celebration of one simple truth: no one is fully in control of their destiny, nor should they be.