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Roman Year: A Memoir
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About This Book
The author of Call Me by Your Name returns with a deeply romantic memoir of his time in Rome while on the cusp of adulthood.In Roman Year, André Aciman captures the period of his adolescence that began when he and his family first set foot in Rome, after being expelled from Egypt. Though Aciman's family had been well-off in Alexandria, all vestiges of their status vanished when they fled, and the author, his younger brother, and his deaf mother moved into a rented apartment (eventually revealed to be a recently vacated brothel) on Via Clelia. Though dejected, Aciman's mother and brother found their way into life in Rome, while Aciman burrowed into his bedroom. The world of novels eventually allowed him to open up to the city and, through them, discover the beating heart of the Eternal City.Aciman's time in Rome did not last long before he and his family moved across the ocean, but by the time they did, he was leaving behind a city he loved. In this memoir, the author, a genius of "the poetry of the place" (John Domini, The Boston Globe), conjures the sights, smells, tastes, and people of Rome as only he can. Aciman captures, as if in amber, a living portrait of himself on the brink of adulthood and the city he worshipped at that pivotal moment. Roman Year is a treasure, unearthed by one of our greatest prose stylists.'Aciman pieces together a rich tapestry of human emotion in a way few other contemporary writers can match.' DAZED'Transporting . . . sensusous.' OBSERVER'Compelling and witty.' NEW STATESMAN
Reviews
"An absorbing exploration of the challenges and slivers of beauty that formed life for a refugee in Rome."
"A writer's emotional center of gravity and his authorial vision emerge in a wistfully remembered adolescent moment in Rome."
"A gem of a memoir that sparkles with light that reflects off every facet of Aciman's pivotal year."
"A brave, sensuous, tender chronicle."
"Aciman's elegant narrative is an echo of the in-between, the blurred passage into adulthood."
"Bittersweet, buoyant and teeming with cinematic detail, André Aciman's new memoir tells of political upheaval and personal transformation in the vibrant, volatile Mediterranean of the 1960s."
"Lovers, or potential lovers, performing their uncertain dance: this is where the tedium burns off and the book grips."
"His poetic exploration of place and probing of what constitutes a home makes for exquisitely moving reading."
"The book is a cornucopia of wonderful impressions and emotions, some so elusive as to challenge, if not defy, verbalisation."
"Aciman evokes the passing of time in rich, meandering prose, rebuilding 1960s Rome in sentences suffused with light and sound and memories ..."
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