Four Seasons in Rome : On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:57:04 +0000

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.

Lo stesso giorno in cui sua moglie ha dato alla luce 2 gemelli, Anthony Doerr ha ricevuto il Roma Prize, premio che gli ha dato uno stipendio e una sistemazione di un anno a Roma … Four Seasons in Rome tratta le ripercussioni di quel giorno, descrivendo le variazioni variabili di Doerr in una delle città più incantevoli del mondo e del primo anno di genitorialità. Legge Plinio, Dante e Keats – i cronisti di Roma che lo hanno preceduto – e visita le piazze, i templi e le antiche cisterne che descrivono. Frequenta la veglia di un Papa Giovanni II morente e porta i suoi gemelli al Pantheon a dicembre per aspettare che la neve cada attraverso l’Oculus.

Lui e la sua famiglia sono abbracciati da macellai, bottegai e fornai del quartiere, il cui clamore di storie e consigli idiosincratici educativi sono avvincenti come la città stessa. Questo libro intimo e rivelatore è una celebrazione di Roma, uno sguardo meraviglioso alla nuova genitorialità e un affascinante resoconto dell’alchimia degli scrittori.

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 05:38:22 +0000

From the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of All the Light We Cannot See, perhaps the most bestselling and beloved literary fiction of our time, comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring novel about children on the cusp of adulthood in a broken world, who find resilience, hope, and story.

The heroes of Cloud Cuckoo Land are trying to figure out the world around them: Anna and Omeir, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour in an attack on a public library in present day Idaho; and Konstance, on an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet, decades from now. Like Marie-Laure and Werner in All the Light We Cannot See, Anna, Omeir, Seymour, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of peril.

An ancient textthe story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the skyprovides solace and mystery to these unforgettable characters.

Doerr has created a tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectednesswith other species, with each other, with those who lived before us and those who will be here after we’re gone.

Dedicated to ‘;the librarians then, now, and in the years to come,’ Cloud Cuckoo Land is a hauntingly beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardshipof the book, of the Earth, of the human heart.

DOERR ANTHONY – Globolibri.it

Four Seasons in Rome : On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

Cloud Cuckoo Land