I seethed, like a pot on the boil, anger making me forget my fear. Just at that moment, Roomba careened into the long velvet train of my plum-colored court gown and growled. […]
Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s THE LEOPARD (Il Gattopardo in the original Italian), about Sicily on the brink of the Risorgimento in 1860, is based on the life of the author’s maternal grandfather, Prince […]
“Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he […]
Marguerite Duras’ THE LOVER (“L’Amant in the original French) is a semi-autobiographical story of forbidden love between a 15-year-old French girl and her 27-year-old Chinese lover, the son of a millionaire. The […]
While these thoughts stirred in my mind, Augustus opened a small door in the wall of an entryway and brought out an object shaped like a large platter, such as we would […]
FAREWELL MY LIFE is a novel about dissolving, crumbling and the vanishing of comfortable lives and assumptions. Again I was SO LUCKY! While doing research on the novel, I noticed that Alfred […]
THE WHITE PRINCESS by Philippa Gregory is the story of Elizabeth of York, daughter of THE WHITE QUEEN (Elisabeth Woodville) and granddaughter of THE LADY OF THE RIVERS (Jacquetta de St Pol). […]
Anne Neville (1456-1485) is not well-known as a personality in her own right. She is most famous for being the wronged wife of Richard III (1452-1485). At the time of her death, […]
THE RED QUEEN is the story of Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), mother of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (1457-1509), who defeated Richard III at Bosworth and reigned as King Henry VII from 1485 […]
Between us sat a table made of some substance like glass, for I could see the carpets on the floor through it. I regarded it dubiously. Would it shatter if I placed […]
“A unique, deftly scripted, and extraordinary novel by an author with a distinctive narrative storytelling style that will hold the readers dedicated attention from beginning to end, “Farewell My Life: Buona Notte Vita Mia” is an impressive and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. One of those rare novels that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf, it should be noted for personal reading lists that “Farewell My Life: Buona Notte Vita Mia” is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).”
“Farewell My Life is a period drama in the form of a book, but the early 1920s form so much more than just a set piece to watch the lives of characters unfold. Every person in the book is masterfully shaped by the era, showing both prejudices, which would be overcome by living in the modern-day and inner strength and drive to claim what one wants that has existed throughout time. By not shying away from either, the author has made a masterpiece, one readers can easily lose themselves in. As the book sweeps on, Grace is brought from Georgetown to post-war Berlin, where she pursues her own passions to become a violinist, before being thrown into the middle of family strife she had no notion existed even the day before she became the center of it. It is an intimate epic, an image of the minutiae of lives spelled out against the vastness of family history.”
“The author…adeptly summons the era in all its manners and details with her descriptive prose…Her omniscient, third-person narrator effectively flits through the heads of various characters, offering momentary glimpses of their inner lives.”
