An invitation from the writer - new father of twins with no experience of parenthood and no Italian - to share his year in Rome. Neither a typical novel nor a piece of travel writing, this book enables us to experience what is, to him, a completely different world. His descriptive writing is excellent - both of Rome and its surroundings and of the stresses, strains and tenderness of parenthood in an unfamiliar environment. I felt that I was being carried along with him at a pace which seemed at the same time to rush by as the seasons passed and to stand still in the moment, as at the death of Pope John Paul II. As a brief visitor to Rome I found it evocative and as a future visitor I would have been inspired to visit, but it would be enough to share in the moment with no intention to travel at all.