- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (7 Mar 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 014017575X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140175752
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 284,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Set amidst Umbria's landscape of desires and memories, a cast of characters collide in a web of deceit, greed and fallibility. At the centre of these overlapping stories is the cunning lawyer, Mancini, who has an unerring ability to predict and control events.
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First Sentence
They are called strade vicinali, neighborhood roads. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
They are called strade vicinali, neighborhood roads. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Though entertaining - and deadly realistic in its portrayal of human weakness at its most mean - this is not the best of Mr.Unsworth's fiction. Its portrayal of the lives and struggles of isolated expatriates in Tuscany, and of their exploitation by an avaricious attorney, has much of the comic about it, and the observations are never less than sharply ironic and amusing, but the underlying theme is of tragedy, of small lives blighted by failures of spirit and generosity. There is no redeeming feature in this story of gloom and petty misery and the larger themes that dominate much of Mr.Unsworth's other fiction are missing here. It is a capable and readable work - but by the time one is half-way through one longs for something more. This said however, Mr.Unsworth in even his lesser work - the category this undoubtedly falls into - is still a better writer than many who are higher acclaimed and the aficionado of his work should not give this a miss.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Take a British couple, an American couple, a German, an Italian family and a pair of homosexual bon vivants all living along a small Italian road: add an unprincipaled expat who is determined to make a living from the niaivity of others, then stir the plot with a Machiavellian lawyer called Mancini and Hey Presto you have the unputdownable Unsworth with another slice of magic. For anyone who loves Italy and Italian life a book not to be missed.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If anybody is in love with Italy this is the book for them.Unsworth lovingly evokes the landscape and history of Umbria. It is a book full of the love of life and wry amusement at the follies of others. I did not find it at all depressing, it is true that the various 'dreams' the participants have of life in Italy fail on them but they survive to live wiser lives. The lawyer is the puppet master and the characters dance to his tune but I think he loves the game rather than acting out of pure malice. I read it at one sitting, a beautifully written, wise, book.
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