Still Life: The instant Sunday Times bestseller and BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick
£4.70
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF DYMOCKS BOOK OF THE YEAR
A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2021
A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK
WINNER OF THE INWORDS LITERARY AWARD
‘Sheer joy’ Graham Norton
‘Utterly beautiful … filled with hope’ Joanna Cannon, author of Three Things About Elsie
’A gorgeous, generous story of kind hearts and kindred spirits’ Daily Mirror
From the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of the families we forge and the friendships that make us.
1944, Italy. As bombs fall around them, two strangers meet in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa and share an extraordinary evening.
Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner a 64-year-old art historian living life on her own terms. She has come to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and relive memories of her youth when her heart was stolen by an Italian maid in a particular room with a view. Ulysses’ chance encounter with Evelyn will transform his life – and all those who love him back home in London – forever.
Uplifting, sweeping and full of unforgettable characters, Still Life is a novel about beauty, love, family and friendship.
‘THE most beautiful book … it will stay with me a long time’ Sara Cox, BBC Two’s Between the Covers
‘Extraordinary . . . my book of the year’ Liz Nugent, author of Our Little Cruelties
‘Moving, wise, poetic and funny’ Daily Mail
‘Winman’s pages teem with boisterous, exuberant life’ Sunday Times
Sunday Times bestseller 09/06/2021
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Additional information
| Publisher | Fourth Estate (1 Jun. 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 1273 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 449 pages |
by Happy Readers
The characters and their description are wonderful. The writing is fluent and evocative. The story tells us about differen lives in different countries and how love can overcome almost everything. A beautiful read.
by Kindle Customer
This is the best book I have read in a long time. The characters come to life, especially in Florence and the descriptions of the city make me want to rush back. Moving and beautiful story.
by Mrs F
I enjoyed the read overall, the characters are a joy and the author fully immerses you in the picture perfect Italian setting to the point you can smell the oranges and coffee. The fairytale flourishes such as the emotionally intelligent parrot and talking trees are subtle enough that they don’t jar at all but embellish the storytelling. The supporting characters of Cress, Claude, Massimo, Dotty and Pete absolutely made the book for me. For my taste there is a little too much trotting out of art history at points where it stilts the flow of the narrative. I also found the final Evelyn Skinner time-hop at the end difficult to engage with, whilst it completed the story arc, it waffled in my opinion. Introducing a raft of new characters that I struggled to invest in knowing the story was at its end (Evelyn herself aside).
by jopav
I bought this book for my book club, it’s not the sort of thing I normally read. So I was so surprised to be hooked early on!! I enjoyed the soldiers story and just loved the way each character makes up a family for him. The scenes in London and Italy are so easy to envisage but I cried during the flood. Oh and Cress and the bird!! To be honest, the story should have ended with them all in Italy. I really didn’t gain anything by reading the historians life at the end but would have appreciated a bit more back story of being a spy!!
by SusannahB
Sarah Winman’s latest novel ‘Still Life’ moves from 1944 to 1979 and tells the story of Ulysses Temper, a young soldier from the East End who, during World War Two, meets sixty-four-year-old art historian, Evelyn Skinner, a spinster who lives an unconventional life and who is in Italy to help salvage works of art from the devastation of war. Filled with a whole cast of wonderful characters – many of whom are not only interesting to read about, but are also rather idiosyncratic (including a somewhat foul-mouthed parrot named Claude) – this ambitious and warm-hearted novel, which looks at love and loss and of the value of family and like-minded friends, is one I very much enjoyed and although it has its deeper themes, it’s one that made me laugh aloud on more than one occasion.
I must admit that when I first began reading, I was a little disorientated when the story moved from Evelyn’s life in Florence to the back streets of the East End of London and to the antics of a whole cast of larger-than-life working-class characters (and I also have to admit that, like others reviewing here, the lack of speech marks and sometimes a lack of demarcation between the speech of different characters, was a little annoying at times) but I soon became totally immersed in these people’s lives and rather sorry to leave them behind once the story came to an end. So, an ambitious story which follows some very interesting and often lovable characters as they move through the decades and as they travel from the dreary streets of post-war London to the beauty of the Tuscan countryside, and a novel I would certainly recommend.
4 Stars.
by RA123
I loved this book- every character was beautifully sketched out, every situation so relatable… I did not want it to end.
by M. Morton
Florence in the midst of war, London in the aftermath, Italy in the post war era… art history and lifelong loyalties and friendships. A large tapestry of people and their relationships over decades. Lovely book but as so many books these days a little too long.
by KTB
A wonderful cultural journey in both time and place. To say it is romantic would be misleading but it is. The overarching emotion you are left with is Love. The characters are believable. I could see them all. I loved this book so much , I bought two more copies to give away. I just want to sit in an Italian square and watch the world go by.