Still Life: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel

Product Description
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick A captivating, bighearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, by the celebrated author of Tin Man.\nTuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades.\nAs Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parot—a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics—he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills.\nWith beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light,
Still Life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a deeply drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms.
Review
Winner of the InWords Literary AwardA Good Morning America Book Club PickOne of:The Millions's Most Anticipated Books of 2021\nBookbub's The Best Historical Fiction to Read This FallParade’s 25 Books We’ve Loved Reading This Fall\nVeranda's 25 Best New Books for Fall 2021\nLit Hub’s Best Books of the Week November
"A tonic for wanderlust and a cure for loneliness. It’s that rare, affectionate novel that makes one feel grateful to have been carried along. Unfurling with no more hurry than a Saturday night among old friends, the story celebrates the myriad ways love is expressed and families are formed….Endlessly charming....The novel never feels anything less than captivating because Winman creates such a flawless illusion of spontaneity, an atmosphere capable of sustaining these characters’ macabre wit, comedy of manners and poignant longing."
—The Washington Post\n“The incredible storytelling, lovable characters, and sweeping settings make this novel an absolute delight, proving that serious fiction does not have to be only dark and depressing.”
—Real Simple“[A] winsome, large-hearted novel . . . [
Still Life] pulses from the page.”
—Entertainment Weekly“A World War II novel that feels fresh is a rare commodity. . . . Constant literary surprises abound.”\n—Entertainment Weekly“Sarah Winman’s sweeping
Still Life is a parade of small stories, intimate connections and complex characters whose lives illuminate the tedium and cataclysms of the 20th century. . . . The real magic of
Still Life is the elevation of the ordinary, the unabashed consecration of human experiences. . . . Sentence after sentence, character by character,
Still Life becomes poetry.”
—New York Times Book Review“In a novel as rich and alluring as a glass of Chianti—and there’s a lot of Chianti in this novel—Evelyn, a middle-aged art historian, and Ulysses, a soldier, hunker down in Tuscany near the end of World War II, crossing paths with E.M. Forster and other Italophiles. The legacy of their unexpected friendship highlights Winman’s grand theme: Art is the torch we carry in darkness.”\n–Oprah Daily
“This sweeping, historical tale brings together an unlikely group of friends – a young English soldier, an aging art historian, a pub owner, a pianist and more – in an epic set against the backdrop of mid-to-late-20th-century Florence.”
–USA Today“In this thoroughly warm, witty, entertaining, and character-driven novel spanning decades, Winman shares bighearted ideas about friendship, love, art, and community….It is hard to envision a reader who won’t be smitten by Winman’s characters and their banter, lik