Italian Neighbors

Author: Tim Parks
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802191150
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year: A deliciously entertaining account of expatriate life in a small village just outside Verona, Italy. Tim Parks is anything but a gentleman in Verona. So after ten years of living with his Italian wife, Rita, in a typical provincial Italian neighborhood, the novelist found that he had inadvertently collected a gallery full of splendid characters. In this wittily observed account, Parks introduces readers to his home town, with a statue of the Virgin at one end of the street, a derelict bottle factory at the other, and a wealth of exotic flora and fauna in between. Via Colombare, the village’s main street, offers an exemplary hodgepodge of all that is new and old in the bel paese, a point of collision between invading suburbia and diehard peasant tradition. It is a world of creeping vines, stuccoed walls, shotguns, security cameras, hypochondria, and expensive sports cars. More than a mere travelogue, Italian Neighbors is a vivid portrait of the real Italy and a compelling story of how even the most foreign people and places gradually assume the familiarity of home. “One of the most delightful travelogues imaginable . . . so vivid, so packed with delectable details.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo

Author: Tim Parks
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393348822
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
The bestselling author of "Italian Neighbors" returns with a wry and revealing portrait of Italian life--by riding its trains.

Italian Neighbors

Author: Tim Parks
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802140340
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
In this seductive account of an Italian neighborhood with a statue of the Virgin at one end of the street, a derelict bottle factory at the other, and a wealth of exotic flora and fauna in between, novelist Tim Parks celebrates ten years of living with his wife in Verona, Italy. More than a travel book, this is a tale of how the most curious people and places gradually assume the familiarity of home, a work that manages to be both a portrait and an invitation for everyone who has ever dreamed about Italy.--From publisher description.

An Italian Education

Author: Tim Parks
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802191142
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
A “marvelous” Mediterranean memoir of an expatriate father raising his children in Italy—from the author of Italian Neighbors (The Washington Post). Tim Parks offers another lively firsthand account of Italian society and culture—this time focusing on all the little things that turn an ordinary newborn infant into a true Italian. When British-born Tim Parks heard a mother at the beach in Pescara shout to her son, “Alberto, don’t sweat! No you can’t go in the sea till eleven, it’s still too cold, go and see your cousin in row three number fifty-two,” he was inspired to write about parenting in Italy—which he was doing himself at the time after adopting the country as his own. In this humorous memoir, Parks offers an enchanting portrait of Italian childhood that shifts from comedy to despair in the time it takes to sing a lullaby. The result is “a wry, thoughtful, and often hilarious book . . . a parable of how our children, no matter what, are other than ourselves” (The New Yorker). “Glimpses of Italy that are fond, critical, pithy and penetrating.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Italian Neighbours

Author: Tim Parks
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN:
Category : Montecchio (Verona, Italy)
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Book Description

Italian Life

Author: Tim Parks
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9781529112580
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The long-awaited new book on 'how Italy really works' from the bestselling writer on Italian culture. Forty years ago, Tim Parks made the bel paese his home. Italian Life is his reckoning with his adopted country, an attempt to get to the core of it, to make sense of it, to fold others' stories in with his own experience - now that he is, in his own words, 'to some degree Italian' himself. The result is an arresting, on-the-ground account of 21st century Italy told through the eyes of a rich cast of characters, among them students from poverty-stricken Basilicata trying to start new lives in the wealthy gloom of Milan, a priest, a poet, a young professor from Padua, and an Englishman who refuses to toe the line. At the book's centre is a story of corruption and power. But it is also a celebration of culture and history, fact and fable, sacred and secular, ancient and modern: a thought-provoking, surprising, entertaining and even definitive account of how Italy actually happens.

A Season with Verona

Author: Tim Parks
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
ISBN: 9781559706285
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Book Description
After twenty years of living in Italy, Tim Parks, whom Joseph Brodsky has called "the best British author writing today," spent a full year following the fortunes--and misfortunes--of the Verona football--oops! soccer--club. Here is his rollicking report.

The Last Supper

Author: Rachel Cusk
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429930594
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
A vivid and elegant account of a family's season abroad by one of our finest contemporary authors Casting off a northern winter and an orderly life, a family decides to sell everything and go to Italy to search for art and its meanings, for freedom from routine, for a different path into the future. The award-winning writer Rachel Cusk describes a three-month journey around the Italy of Raphael and rented villas, of the Piero della Francesca trail and the tourist furnace of Amalfi, of soccer and the simple glories of pasta and gelato. With her husband and two children, Cusk uncovers the mystery of a foreign language, the perils and pleasures of unbelonging, and the startling thrill of discovery -- at once historic and intimate. Both sharp and humane in its exploration of the desire to travel and to escape, of art and its inspirations, of beauty and ugliness, and of the challenge of balancing domestic life with creativity, The Last Supper is an astonishing memoir.

The Italians

Author: John Hooper
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525428070
Category : Italians
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
John Hooper presents the ideal companion for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians. Digging deep into their history, culture and religion, he offers keys to assessing everything from their bewildering politics to their love of life and beauty.

My Italian Bulldozer

Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1101871407
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Book Description
The best-selling author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series returns with an irresistible new novel about one man’s adventures in the Italian countryside. Paul Stuart, a renowned food writer, finds himself at loose ends after his longtime girlfriend leaves him for her personal trainer. To cheer him up, Paul’s editor, Gloria, encourages him to finish his latest cookbook on-site in Tuscany, hoping that a change of scenery (plus the occasional truffled pasta and glass of red wine) will offer a cure for both heartache and writer’s block. But upon Paul’s arrival, things don’t quite go as planned. A mishap with his rental-car reservation leaves him stranded, until a newfound friend leads him to an intriguing alternative: a bulldozer. With little choice in the matter, Paul accepts the offer, and as he journeys (well, slowly trundles) into the idyllic hillside town of Montalcino, he discovers that the bulldozer may be the least of the surprises that await him. What follows is a delightful romp through the lush sights and flavors of the Tuscan countryside, as Paul encounters a rich cast of characters, including a young American woman who awakens in him something unexpected. A feast for the senses and a poignant meditation on the complexity of human relationships, My Italian Bulldozer is a charming and intensely satisfying love story for anyone who has ever dreamed of a fresh start.