BOOK REVIEW
Still life
Author: Sarah Winman
This is an amazing story of unforgettable characters covering their earlier and later lives and experiences and the forging and renewing of friendships in unusual and unexpected ways.
We are introduced to a young British soldier, Ulysses Templar, stationed in Italy in 1944, and his meeting with a 64 year old art historian, Evelyn, who has no intention of leaving a country in the midst of war. She is there to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and in the process forms a strong relationship with both the soldier and a young maid working in the pensione in Florence where she is living.
After the war Ulysses returns to his home in London and the friends he has left behind and including his ex wife. Most of these people, including Ulysses, frequent a pub in the East End and here we are introduced to characters of immense warmth and humour.
Ulysses returns to Florence and purchases his own pensione. Another chapter in his life and those close to him opens up.
I found Sarah Winman’s writing hard to describe - it is beautiful and effortless and so unique. There is an emphasis on love, life, death and relationships in all their forms. An author I will pursue in the future.
ROSALIE HOWARTH
Author: Sarah Winman
This is an amazing story of unforgettable characters covering their earlier and later lives and experiences and the forging and renewing of friendships in unusual and unexpected ways.
We are introduced to a young British soldier, Ulysses Templar, stationed in Italy in 1944, and his meeting with a 64 year old art historian, Evelyn, who has no intention of leaving a country in the midst of war. She is there to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and in the process forms a strong relationship with both the soldier and a young maid working in the pensione in Florence where she is living.
After the war Ulysses returns to his home in London and the friends he has left behind and including his ex wife. Most of these people, including Ulysses, frequent a pub in the East End and here we are introduced to characters of immense warmth and humour.
Ulysses returns to Florence and purchases his own pensione. Another chapter in his life and those close to him opens up.
I found Sarah Winman’s writing hard to describe - it is beautiful and effortless and so unique. There is an emphasis on love, life, death and relationships in all their forms. An author I will pursue in the future.
ROSALIE HOWARTH