Looking for great fiction set in Italy

[KLynn]

I am already enjoying all the wonderful footage from Italy with the upcoming Olympics (Katie Couric was in Rome this morning and Florence tomorrow). It has put me in the mood to curl up with some great books set in Italy. Any ideas??

[funniegrrl]

I liked Italian Fever by Valerie Martin as a lightweight entertainment. I'm also currently reading The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt, who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil -- in a similar fashion, it is essentially non-fiction that's just as entertaining as a novel. Then there's Under the Tuscan Sun which I haven't read but of course is very popular. If you like serious historical fiction, I highly recommend Colleen McCullough's Roman republic-to-empire series. Be warned, though, that they are more like Russian novels -- very complex, lots of characters, hundreds of pages each -- than typical "best seller" fiction.

[Meganator]

Room With a View

[IBouteille]

Under the Tuscan Sun... I think it may be a travel memoir (not fiction).

[Canice]

If anyone's interested in non-fiction set in Italy, I highly recommend Tim Parks' Italian Neighbors; Parks is a British novelist who moved to Italy with his Italian wife and made their home in Verona. Its sequal An Italian Education is even better.

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. 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.

[Meganator]

Under the Tuscan Sun... I think it may be a travel memoir (not fiction).

Not exactly a travel memoir, but nonfiction. It is about a couple who buy a house in Tuscany, with all the trials and tribulations that ensue. I think it, and its sequel, do provide a great feel for Italy. Since it is written by an American, everything is new and different, and described in great detail. Including the food!

[luvItalian]

Pasquale's Nose - Idle Days in an Itailan Town for the adults. My favorite for children and adults will enjoy too is Theif Lord. If anyone has a child that is 8 or older please put it on the reading list. It is one of the best books I have read!!!

[Kristal]

I really enjoyed a short story collection by Niccolo Tucci entitled The Rain Came Last & Other Stories.

[Melman]

I read a series of three book by Adriana Trigiani. Each book is split between the mountains of WV (or VA?) and Italy. The chapters dealing with Italy were WONDERFUL!!! Those books were instrumental in causing me to put Italy on my list of places I must visit one day. I thoroughly enjoyed all three books. Big Stone Gap, Milk Glass Moon, and Big Cherry Hollar. (Not necessarily in that order)

[jroseanne]

This is a good read!

"A House in Sicily" by Daphne Phelps

From Amazon.com
I had always been a bit of a maverick," writes Daphne Phelps, looking back on why--at the age of 34--when she unexpectedly inherited a grand house in Taormina, Sicily, she gave up her profession in London, left behind her ordered life with its museums, theater, family and friends, and embarked on a life-long adventure. Reading her intriguing memoir, one is glad Phelps chose the unconventional path: after inheriting her uncle's Casa Cuseni with its terraced gardens and staggering views of Mt. Etna, she struggles to make ends meet, but instead of selling the estate, opens its doors to a steady stream of paying guests and visitors--many of them artists, writers, and intellectuals.

[kcmo727]

Love and War in the Appenines by Eric Newby is great. He is a travel writer who was held as a POW in Italy during WWII. The book tells the story of how he met his wife. A very short but sweet little book.

[Becky13347]

Much of John Grisham's "The Broker" takes place in Italy. There's always "The Davinci Code" and its prequel whose name escapes me....Angels and Devils, Saints and something???? Can't remember :o

[Beth Y]

When I was last traveling in Italy, years ago, I was reading The Agony and the Ectasy which is about the life of Michealangelo. It is a great read, although sometimes you will wonder how he survived (I was telling my husband about some parts while reading and he nicknamed it "The Agony and the Agony"). It was very neat to read all the history of the art while traveling through towns where his work, work by his contemporaries, and the impact of the de Medici's can be so clearly seen. We did not get to Florence, which, obviously, plays a huge factor in his life. It reads like a story, but gives you a lot of history for your trip.

Glad to see I am not the only nut to read stories about the place I am traveling or by local author when I travel. (Although there was that one time I was reading a South American writer while in Japan, very wierd feeling)

[Aubergine]

i've got a good one to suggest: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. here's what amazon quotes from PW:

Sarah Dunant's gorgeous and mesmerizing novel, Birth of Venus, draws readers into a turbulent 15th-century Florence, a time when the lavish city, steeped in years of Medici family luxury, is suddenly besieged by plague, threat of invasion, and the righteous wrath of a fundamentalist monk. Dunant masterfully blends fact and fiction, seamlessly interweaving Florentine history with the coming-of-age story of a spirited 14-year-old girl. As Florence struggles in Savonarola's grip, a serial killer stalks the streets, the French invaders creep closer, and young Alessandra Cecchi must surrender her "childish" dreams and navigate her way into womanhood. Readers are quickly seduced by the simplicity of her unconventional passions that are more artistic than domestic:

Dancing is one of the many things I should be good at that I am not. Unlike my sister. Plautilla can move across the floor like water and sing a stave of music like a song bird, while I, who can translate both Latin and Greek faster than she or my brothers can read it, have club feet on the dance floor and a voice like a crow. Though I swear if I were to paint the scale I could do it in a flash: shining gold leaf for the top notes falling through ochres and reds into hot purple and deepest blue.
Alessandra's story, though central, is only one part of this multi-faceted and complex historical novel. Dunant paints a fascinating array of women onto her dark canvas, each representing the various fates of early Renaissance women: Alessandra's lovely (if simple) sister Plautilla is interested only in marrying rich and presiding over a household; the brave Erila, Alessandra's North African servant (and willing accomplice) has such a frank understanding of the limitations of her sex that she often escapes them; and Signora Cecchi, Alessandra's beautiful but weary mother tries to encourage yet temper the passions of her wayward daughter.

A luminous and lush novel, The Birth of Venus, at its heart, is a mysterious and sensual story with razor-sharp teeth. Like Alessandra, Dunant has a painter's eye--her writing is rich and evocative, luxuriating in colors and textures of the city, the people, and the art of 15th-century Florence. Reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, but with sensual splashes of color and the occasional thrill of fear, Dunant's novel is both exciting and enchanting. --Daphne Durham

my GF read this and loved it. it's on my to-read list.

[Jessica]

Do you like mysteries? Gertdog started me on the Donna Leon books, which are detective stories set in Venice, and I am really enjoying them.

I read part of The Agony and the Ecstasy before we visited Rome and I enjoyed it--probably should finish it one of these days.

Under the Tuscan Sun was fun but I found the author a bit pretentious.

[Laura B]

i've got a good one to suggest: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.

I read and loved this book. I read another of Sarah Dunant's books which was also set in Italy. I gave them both away after I read them and don't recall the name of the second one. I really enjoyed them both, though.

[mmtibbs]

Please keep your suggestions coming. I am currently planning my first trip to Italy for October of this year. I love to read both nonfiction and fiction set in my destination!

Michelle

[Food Fussy]

A Thread of Grace: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell. It's about Italian Jews during World War II. A very good read, particularly if you like history.

[funniegrrl]

Another historical book ... a fictionalized bio of the great female Renaissance painter Artemesia Gentileschi: Artemisia: A Novel by Alexandra Lapierre. It is VERY well-researched -- the author is actually a historian -- and I much much much prefer it to the Susan Vreeland novel.

[foodfiend]

I recommend The Secret Book of Grazie dei Rossi by Jacqueline Park. It's a historical novel in Italy with a Jewish heroine. It's really well-written and well-researched.
On the subject of painters, there's The Lost Painting by Jonathon Harr, which just came out. I enjoyed it a lot. It's about a lost Caravaggio that re-surfaces.
Showing my ignorance, but isn't The Agony and the Ecstasy or a something similar the title of a non-Michaelangelo novel? :confused:

[KLynn]

Thanks, everybody! This is a fantastic list. I think The Birth of Venus will be first!

[AvrilH]

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. This is meant as children's literature, but I enjoyed the book very much, and it very much inspired to me to want to visit Venice. My son felt the same way too.

[lindaofthelakes]

If you are thinking about Tuscany at all Id recommend Hill Towns by Anne Rivers Siddon. I know when I read it I had an urge to visit Tuscany. I like all her books in general anyway as they usually have the female lead making a life changing discovery about herself. This one has great descriptions of the different towns and buildings in Tuscany.

[Beth Y]

Okay, you got me doubting my memory, so I looked it up and found this on Amazon about The Agony and the Ecstasy.

"Irving Stone's classic biographical novel-in which both the artist and the man are brought to life in full. A masterpiece in its own right, this novel offers a compelling portrait of Michelangelo's dangerous, impassioned loves, and the God-driven fury from which he wrested the greatest art the world has ever known."

[tmsl]

Much of John Grisham's "The Broker" takes place in Italy. There's always "The Davinci Code" and its prequel whose name escapes me....Angels and Devils, Saints and something???? Can't remember :o

"Angels and Demons" it is set more in Italy than "The Davinci Code". I enjoyed "A & D" much better than the code.

[foodfiend]

Thanks Beth. Maybe I was thinking of The Sound and the Fury...