About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherGROVE/Atlantic, Incorporated

ISBN-100802140343

ISBN-139780802140340

eBay Product ID (ePID)5927370

Product Key Features

Book TitleItalian Neighbors

Number of Pages280 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicMarriage & Long-Term Relationships, Europe / Italy, Essays & Travelogues, Customs & Traditions, Essays

Publication Year2003

GenreFamily & Relationships, Travel, Social Science, Literary Collections

AuthorTim Parks

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Weight9.5 Oz

Item Length8.2 in

Item Width5.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

SynopsisIn this deliciously 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, acclaimed novelist Tim Parks celebrates ten years of living with his wife, Rita, in Verona, Italy. More than a travel book, Italian Neighbors is a sparkling, witty, beautifully observed tale of how the most curious people and places gradually assume the familiarity of home. Selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Italian Neighbors is a rare work that manages to be both a portrait and an invitation for everyone who has ever dreamed about Italy., In this deliciously 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, acclaimed novelist Tim Parks celebrates ten years of living with his wife, Rita, in Verona, Italy. Via Colombre, the main street in a village just outside Verona, 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 in a sometimes madcap, sometimes romantic always mixed-up world of creeping vines, stuccoed walls, shotguns, security cameras, hypochondria, and expensive sports cars. Tim Parks is anything but a gentleman in Verona. With an Italian-born wife, an Italian made family, and a whole Italian condominium bubbling around him, he collects a gallery full of splendid characters who initiate us into all the foibles and delights of life in provincial Italy. More than a travel book, Italian Neighbors is a sparkling, witty, beautifully observed tale of how the most curious people and places gradually assume the familiarity of home. Italian Neighbors is a rare work that manages to be both a portrait and an invitation for everyone who has ever dreamed about Italy.