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

By Anthony Doerr

Book Overview

From the author of the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning #1 New York Times bestseller All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land, a "dazzling" (Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran) travel memoir about art, new parenthood, and adventures in Rome.Anthony Doerr has received many awards--from the New York Public Library, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Library Association. Then came the Rome Prize, one of the most prestigious awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and with it a stipend and a writing studio in Rome for a year. Doerr learned of the award the day he and his wife returned from the hospital with newborn twins. Exquisitely observed, Four Seasons in Rome describes Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world. 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 neighborhood, whose clamor 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 story of a writer's craft--the process by which he transforms what he sees and experiences into sentences.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141657316X
• ISBN13: 9781416573166
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. I've never read any of Mr Doerr's books before, but his style and thought and descriptions were so absorbing.....being a grandmother of three, two of them small boys, I loved every word of his descriptions of his sons. Also being a raging italophile, I loved the descriptions of Rome and the countryside as well, let alone he and his wife's bravery at moving to a foreign coumtry with not one, but two newborns! I highly recommend this book.....and look forward to reading it again myself.

An excellent and easy read.

I don't read much -- I have a really short attention span -- but anything about Rome usually catches my attention. I've been there a few times and have absolutely fallen in love with that city. Some travelogs about Rome are too highbrow for me, or a little too intellectual, so I'm always searching for non-fiction that conveys a real sense of the city. This book did it. It's very easy to read, and the author so perfectly nails the details about the city (and even gave me a few clues about new things to go and see that I haven't seen before!). The way he describes the nuances of each season makes me crave a return trip. It's a beautifully-written book, for anyone who loves Rome, or for anyone who's curious about visiting this most amazing city.

Wonderful!

I purchased "Four Season in Rome" after hearing an interview with Anthony Doerr on NPR. My oldest son has just completed 5 years of studies in Rome and I have been there to visit him many times. I hoped that the book would evoke memories of my trips and of his experiences living there; it did...and more so! While Mr. Doerr is more than kind to both the city and to Romans in general, he does paint a vivid and fascinating picture of this most unusual and unforgettable city. And as a BONUS the book is as much about raising twin boys as it is about the city! In short, I loved it and I will be purchasing more copies for Christmas gifts to family members who also love Rome AND who happen to have twins, as well!

Flawless; a perfect summer read...

In a word, fantastic. Perhaps the clearest tribute is that I've never been to Rome, raised children, nor tried to write a novel, yet still found this book to be wonderfully compelling. "Four Seasons in Rome" is alternatively hysterical and poignant, and always beautifully written. Doerr - an accomplished fiction writer - couldn't have made a smoother transition to a new genre. In fact, his nearly super human powers of perception are especially well-suited for describing and bringing to life the sounds, smells, feel, and wonder of everday Rome. A perfect reminder of the beauty of the seemingly mundane. And a perfect summer read for just about anyone.