Four Seasons in Rome
On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- £6.49
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins, Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize, an award that gave him a year-long stipend and studio in Rome…
‘Four Seasons in Rome’ charts the repercussions of that day, describing Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world, and the first year of parenthood. He reads Pliny, Dante, and Keats – the chroniclers of Rome who came before him – and visits the piazzas, temples, and ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He and his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, and bakers of the neighbourhood, whose clamour of stories and idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself.
This intimate and revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood and a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers.
Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.
Reviews
‘Anthony Doerr is dazzling in this book, in the way he celebrates the joys as well as the pain of being a parent and in love, being a writer and being in Rome, reminding us that certain experiences never grow stale when they are expressed through the fresh eyes of a real writer.’ Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran
‘Anthony Doerr found himself in the perfect Eternal City with the eternal Paternal Problem: how to care for two beautiful newborn twins while still doing his work as a writer and student and observer. The result is a funny, precise, touching account of cultural barricades crossed and fatherly exhaustions overcome; a story of the universalities of parenting and the specificities of Roman life that will lift the heart of every parent and delight the mind of every lover of Italy.’ Adam Gopnik, author of ‘Through the Children's Gate and From Paris to the Moon’
About the author
Anthony Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and twin sons. He is the author of ‘The Shell Collector’ and ‘About Grace’, and is one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Doerr is not an accomplished narrator: he has a narrow vocal range, drops his voice at the ends of sentences, and articulates words so carefully as to undermine the conversational flow of his fine writing. But all that said, the audio edition of this memoir is saved by his genuine and infectious sense of curiosity, awe, and wonder that is as evident in his voice as in his words. On the day his twins are born, Doerr is offered a grant to spend a year at the American University in Rome working on what will become his Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the Light We Cannot See (2014). In Rome, while he and his wife are slugging through and delighting in their sons first year of life, he falls in love with Roman history, historians, art, ancient sites, mountains, trees, and the neighbors and shopkeepers who befriend his family. A Scribner paperback.
