This long book about love, friendship, and art is also an homage to Florence, Italy. The narrative begins in WWII Italy when Evelyn Skinner and Ulysses Temper meet during the liberation of Italy. During a brief leave in Florence, Ulysses saves the life of a man contemplating suicide.
After the war, Ulysses returns to England and reunites with a cadre of old friends. In a few years time he learns that he has inherited the estate of the man whose life he saved. Ulysses and eventually of his cadre move to Florence where he (they?) run a pensione.
The book is really about the relationships among these friends. A family constructed from love and caring rather than by blood. And it is a tribute to Florence, Italy.
The story covers most of the 20th century in the city in a round about way.

I read this book for our book discussion group. Left to my own devices, I would have given up after the first chapter. I did plug on and didn't really appreciate the book until after page 300. It's an okay story. I get what the author is trying to do. But there are two annoying things about this book:
1. there is no dialogue punctuation. This becomes really confusing to the reader when there are more than two people in the dialogue.
2. the book is 450 pages. It is written in a tiny typeface in relatively low contrast ink. I ended up purchasing the Kindle version just to keep from going blind while reading the book.
Has ink gotten so expensive that we can't have dialogue punctuation, a decent size typeface, and dark ink on the page? ( )

This is probably going to be one of my best books of 2023. The writing is beautiful, almost poetic, and the characters are so charming that I wanted to book a room in their pensione. It really doesn't get much better than this.

In 1944 British soldier Ulysses Temper, is driving through the Tuscany countryside to return to his base. He is flagged down by Evelyn Skinner, an art historian who is hoping to get into Florence to rescue precious works of art. When the British army enters Florence, Evelyn is driven there by Ulysses. Evelyn, age 64, has been visiting Florence since she was a girl. She even stayed at the same pensione as E. M. Forster before he wrote A Room with a View, which was based on Forster's stay in Florence. So Evelyn is very knowledgeable about the city and she passes on to Ulysses her love of the city and its art. This will not be the last time that Ulysses and Evelyn meet in Florence but it will be some years with a number of near misses. See, Ulysses saves the life of a man while he is walking through Florence in 1944 and, in gratitude, the man leaves Ulysses his large apartment when he dies. Ulysses has been back in London since the end of the war. The woman he married before he left for the war, Peg, fell in love with an American soldier and had a child by him. Peg wants a divorce from Ulysses so that when the father of her child returns she can marry him. Ulysses, still in love with Peg, can refuse her nothing and so they divorce. But Peg's child, Alys, is brought up by Ulysses because Peg can't manage to look after her. When Ulysses inherits the Florentine property he decides to move there and with Peg's acquiescence takes Alys with him. Also accompanying them is their talented neighbour, Col, who can communicate with trees and fix almost anything. As the years pass, these three become a family and, because chosen families can always accommodate more, there are additions from old acquintances and new.

This is a love story, yes, but not just about love between two people. It's about love of art and beauty and place and time too. Evelyn tells Ulysses when they first meet:
“Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world, Ulysses. It repositions our sight and judgment. Captures forever that which is fleeting,” Art versus humanity is not the question, Ulysses. One doesn’t exist without the other.”
Read this book if you are despairing of modern life. It is an antidote to depression and angst. ( )

The story grew on me. It took me a while to become immersed in the story.
I loved the character of Cressy the most, although they were all fantastic. ( )

Wonderful book. Such lovely characters. A real treat. Makes you want to move to Italy. ( )

An ensemble cast of characters who find and support one another, including an opinionated parrot and the beautiful city of Florence. A novel full of charming anachronisms. While evoking the fragility of life, Winman celebrates the consolation of making and cherishing friendships. A quiet, moving and often amusing story that stretches from WW2 to the seventies. ( )