Still Life

Category: Book
By (author): Winman, Sarah
Subject:  FICTION / Family Life
  FICTION / General
  FICTION / Literary
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Published: October 2021
Format: Book-paperback
Pages: 464
Size: 9.00in x 6.25in
Our Price:
$ 24.95
Availability:
In stock

Additional Notes

From The Publisher*Set between World War II and the 1980s, Still Life is a beautiful, big-hearted story of strangers brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, from the bestselling, prize-winning author of Tin Man and When God Was a Rabbit.

In the wine-cellar of a Tuscan villa, as the Allies advance and bombs fall around them, two people meet and share an extraordinary evening: Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier from London's East End; Evelyn Skinner is a worldly older art historian and possible spy. She has come to Italy to rescue paintings from the ruins and relive her memories of the time she encountered E.M. Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view.

Evelyn's talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses's mind that night, one that will shape the trajectory of his life--and the lives of those who love him--for the next four decades. Moving from war-ravaged Tuscany to the boozy confines of The Stoat and Parrot pub in London and the piazzas of post-war Florence, Still Life is both sweeping and intimate, mischievous and deeply felt. It is a novel about beauty, love and fate, about the things that make life worth living, and the things we're prepared to die for.
Review Quote*Praise for Still Life:

"From its opening pages Still Life embodies the full generosity of the human spirit. This vast, ambitious, galloping bear-hug of a book unashamedly celebrates love in all its many forms. Love of art, love of strangers, love of a good glass of Italian wine and a bowl of pasta cooked with enough salt to taste like the sea. Love of stories. Love of love."
-Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Miss Benson's Beetle

"I loved this extraordinary, astonishing and exquisite novel. The story of damaged characters restored and repaired by the truth and beauty of Tuscany, as Florence itself is restored and repaired post-war and post-flood is beautifully told. A joy and a pleasure, my book of the year."
-Liz Nugent, author of Little Cruelties

"Still Life is a playful, Maupinesque exploration of the elective family and its possibilities. Four course nourishment for all Winman fans, it harnesses big hearted storytelling to a dizzying historical sweep to celebrate love in all the available colours."
-Patrick Gale, author of Take Nothing With You
 
"This book saved my soul during these very strange times. I loved every word, every sentence, every beat. It's about love and our defining moments, and it is utterly beautiful. The characters and places now live in my own memory - to be cherished forever."
-Favel Parrett, author of Past the Shallows

"Readers will want to prolong the pleasure of Sarah Winman's beautiful novel Still Life for as long as possible. It is a book to get lost in, the kind of story that bolsters the heart and soul. I loved it."
-Donal Ryan, author of From a Low and Quiet Sea

"Oh my goodness, I have just finished it! An utterly beautiful story, so generous, rich, deeply moving and filled with hope. Sarah Winman is a genius and one of the greatest storytellers of our time. I remember reading it, When God Was A Rabbit all those years ago and being in complete awe of her, thinking 'I wonder if I could do this too?', so Sarah Winman is why I write!"
-Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

"Exquisite. . . . There are not enough superlatives to contain the magnitude and beauty of this novel. It explores the very foundations of the meaning of family; is it really a collective gene pool or does the heart of family mean something else entirely? . . . It's a celebration of beauty, a story of . . . ‘Continuity. Memory. Family.' It is, above all, a testament to love." 
-The Irish Independent

"Moving, wise, poetic and funny, this book is pure sunshine." 
-Daily Mail (UK)

"A gorgeous, generous story of kind hearts and kindred spirits redefining the meaning of family and friendship… [A] hopeful, happy, intensely humane novel." 
-Daily Mirror (UK)

"Teeming with unforgettable characters and oozing atmosphere, it's a joyous, summery ode to love, art and poetry, to wild bets, E. M. Forster and sharp dressing." 
-Mail on Sunday (UK)

"Her previous novels have shown Winman as one of the greatest chroniclers of grief. . . . In Still Life, she emerges now as the great narrator of hope." 
-Irish Times

"Criss-crossing between London and Florence, Winman's pages teem with boisterous, exuberant life. . . . The novel has verve, charm and tremendous heart."
-Sunday Times (UK)

"Touching, witty and very evocative of a post-war world."
-Independent (UK)
 
"More than mere beach reading, this richly portrayed tome sweeps from a 1944 chance encounter in the Tuscan countryside to post-war London and a surprise later move to Florence. . . . Still Life is without a doubt one of the finest novels to have emerged about Florence in recent years."
-The Florentine
Biographical NoteSARAH WINMAN is the author of three previous novels, Tin Man, A Year of Marvelous Ways, and When God Was a Rabbit. She grew up in Essex and now lives in London. She attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to act in theatre, film, and television.