Twenty-five years ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to Tuscany, Italy, for three weeks. My then parents-in-law had taken a beautiful rustic villa just twenty minutes outside San Gimignano for the summer and had generously invited their son and I to join them.

The idea for The Wife’s House came to me in a dream. I was on a walk near my house, wandering by the coast—somewhere in the world, my dream didn’t tell me where—and triplets approached me, telling me that I was living in their home.