Illegitimate and orphaned, Gian-Luca is brought up by his Italian grandparents in their prosperous salumeria in Old Compton Street, Soho. Here, surrounded by plenty - by bottles of Chianti in straw petticoats, by pasta and garlic, strings of sausages and jars of dark olives - he lacks that more important sustenance of the soul.
A stranger in the land of his birth, denied religious identity and human love, Gian-Luca grows to maturity seeking to resolve a terrible conflict between the needs of his spirit and the demands of the material world. In the acclaimed Adam's Breed Gian-Luca becomes disgusted with his job and goes to live in the forest as a hermit, with devastating consequences.
