Sarah winman author biography graphic organizer
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Whimsical novel set in FLORENCE (and LONDON)
7th December
Still Life by Sarah Winman, whimsical novel set in Florence (and London).
During WW2, two people’s lives intersect – perhaps on some kind of clandestine mission – in the Tuscan Hills and post war they return to their more ordinary lives in very different parts of London.
This is the story of how life pans out for them, their families and for their circle of friends, drawn out over 4 decades as the world changes and evolves around them.
Ulysses, now having once tasted all that Florence has to offer, eventually sets off with a friend (Cres) and a friend’s young daughter in tow (referred to as the ‘Kid’ or Alys), oh, and not forgetting the parrot. Ulysses has come into some money and they decide to set up a pensione in anticipation of attracting guests from far and wide.
Cres has done what all newcomers to the city need to do in order to get under the skin of the city – he reads E M Forster’s A Room with a View, to get a sense of the place, and go down to a deeper level (now, there a good idea, a kind of trip fiction don’t you think 😉…). He even consigns his Baedecker guidebook to the floor, where it becomes a satisfactory doorstop. They name their new enterprise Bertolini, after the pensione in the novel, but
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Sophie Roell, Editor
Sophie Roell is co-founder and editor of Five Books. Previously she worked as a journalist in London, Beijing, Shanghai and New York. As a financial reporter, she covered the early years of the Chinese stock markets and the transition of its economy after Deng Xiaoping&#;s tour of the south. She wrote about the North Korean economy from Pyongyang in
She studied modern history as an undergraduate at Oxford and, after travelling the world as a reporter for five years, took the Master&#;s in Regional Studies-East Asia at Harvard University. This wonderfully flexible program insists on at least one East Asian language and some courses on East Asia, but leaves plenty of room to roam about the university taking courses on random subjects. Five Books, set up in , is an attempt to continue that experience.
Below, you&#;ll find Sophie&#;s Five Books interviews with experts. Her own recommendations, normally nonfiction, are here. She also reads a lot of mysteries.