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Italian
Neighbours
by Tim Parks
An Englishman, married to an Italian, settles down in
Verona and looks around him.
I read this while I was living in Milan and I much
enjoyed it - and related to a lot of it.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Recommended by: Georgie, Director of JMJ Manchester
Click here to read about JMJ
- the school, the teachers and the director. |
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An
Italian Education
by Tim Parks
A sequel to Italian Neighbours, describing life as his
children grow up, go to school and become Italians.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
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The
Dark Heart of Italy
by Tobias Jones
A good, hard look beneath the surface of Italy by a
Welsh journalist who emigrated there in 1999. Fascinating
insights.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Recommended by: Georgie |
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Midnight
in Sicily
by Peter Robb
An Australian journalist explores Sicily, looking at
food, art, history and literature, as well as political
corruption and violent crime. One of the most enlightening
books I have ever read.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Recommended by: Jeremy, student at JMJ |
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| British/American
novels set in Italy
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The following
are novels set in Italy which, although not written
by Italians, give a nice sense of place - that lovely
feeling of being in Italy. |
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A
Room with a View
by E.M. Forster
Florence and England at the turn of the 19th/20th
centuries. A girl is torn between two men, representing
love and duty. Good story, well told (and a nice film
too).
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Recommended by: Georgie |
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| Christobel Kent is a contemporary
writer of murder mysteries, with English characters in
Italian settings. Undemanding, enjoyable reading. |
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A Party in San Niccolo
by Christobel Kent
This is the first one.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Other books in this series are:
Late
Season
The
Summer House
A
Florentine Revenge
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Recommended by: Jane, student at JMJ
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Miss Garnet's Angel
by Salley Vickers
A middle-aged English woman makes a new
life in Venice.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Recommended by: Rachael, student at JMJ |
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Angels and Demons
by Dan Brown
Set in Rome during the
(fictional) election of a new pope. Racy and involving,
the prequel to The
Da Vinci Code. I really enjoyed it.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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Donna
Leon was born in the USA but lives in Venice. She writes
mysteries that are solved by Commissario Guido Brunetti. |
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Death at La Fenice
by Donna Leon
This is the first in the series.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Other books in this series are (in order):
Death
in a Strange Country
The
Anonymous Venetian
A
Venetian Reckoning
Acqua
Alta
The
Death of Faith
A
Noble Radiance
Fatal
Remedies
Friends
in High Places
A
Sea of Troubles
Wilful
Behaviour
Uniform
Justice
Doctored
Evidence
Blood
from a Stone
Through
a Glass Darkly (so far only available in hardback) |
Recommended by: Iain, student at JMJ |
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Italian
classics
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Let's
start with Dante. I read all three books of The Divine
Comedy as part of my Italian degree and I absolutely
loved them. I also read a lot of other Italian classics
at that time and I can't remember anything about them
but Dante made a deep and lasting impression. Really
juicy stuff - I can't recommend it too highly.
I wanted to find the version
I read, a parallel text with a translation by John Sinclair,
but Amazon doesn't carry it. If you find that somewhere
else, I recommend it because a) I think the translation
is good and b) it's nice/useful to have the original
Italian there as well.
The translation by Mark
Musa has been well received and reviewed.
Georgie
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Inferno
by Dante Alighieri
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Purgatorio
by Dante Alighieri
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
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Paradiso
by Dante Alighieri
Click
here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
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In brackets…
If you're into The Divine Comedy, you will probably enjoy
The Dante Club. |
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The
Dante Club
by Matthew Pearl
Set in post-civil-war Boston, when Dante had not yet
been translated into English and was, in fact, viewed
with suspicion by all but the most ardent scholars.
Extremely nasty, Dante-related murders occur and the
scholars investigate.
Somewhat heavy in places but an intriguing mystery
with a realistic ending.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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The
Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi)
by Alessandro Manzoni
Written in the 1820s but set during
the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, it tells the
story of Renzo and Lucia, two young lovers in Lombardy,
who are prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant
Don Rodrigo because he wants Lucia for himself.
Good story, well told. Another of the Italian literary
greats.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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Christ Stopped
at Eboli
by Carlo Levi
In 1935, Carlo Levi was banished to a remote village
in southern Italy for his opposition to Fascism. This
excellent book is an account of his life there.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Tony, student at JMJ |
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The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
Set in Italy in the Middle Ages, this
tremendous book tells the story of a murder investigation
in a monastery - and a lot more besides. Long and a
bit heavy at times but definitely well worth reading.
Excellent film, too. (See below)
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Recommended by: James, student at JMJ |
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Foucault's Pendulum
by Umberto Eco
A more recent Eco, which has been described
as similar to, though much weightier than, The
Da Vinci Code. Three book editors in Milan feed
wild ideas from the manuscripts they receive into a
powerful computer and what starts as a bit of fun soon
leads to murders.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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The Leopard
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Powerful and enlightening story of
social upheaval in Sicily at the end of the eighteenth
century.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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The
Abruzzo Trilogy
by Ignazio Silone
I can't seem to find these separately but they're all
great books so you might as well get them all!
These novels were written during Mussolini's
fascist dictatorship and were initially banned in Italy
but later became international best-sellers.
Social oppression in southern Italy,
brilliantly depicted.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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The Garden of
the Finzi-Continis
by Giorgio Bassani
Set in Ferrara as World War Two approaches,
this is the story of young Jewish people growing up
in the shadow of the impending holocaust. Powerful,
moving and thought-provoking.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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One, No One, and One
Hundred Thousand
by Luigi Pirandello
This book is about a man
obsessed with seeing ourselves as others see us. What
is acting naturally? Would I have done that if you weren't
here? Am I being true to myself?
The ideas presented
in this novel have stayed with me for twenty years.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon. |
Recommended by: Georgie |
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Zeno's Conscience
by Italo Svevo
An unusual novel about
therapy and the attempt to give up smoking. Written
in the 1920s, in the early days of Freud's psychoanalysis,
but still relevant, interesting and funny today.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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The Wine-Dark
Sea
Leonardo Sciascia
Sciascia was a passionate
and influential twentieth-century Sicilian writer, whose
novels vary in darkness and pessimism. These short stories
are a good introduction to his work.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Jeremy, student at JMJ |
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| Lighter
books Andrea
Camilleri is a contemporary writer, along the lines
of Sciascia but much lighter. His Inspector Montalbano
series gives a strong sense of Sicilian life - and food.
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The Shape of Water
by Andrea Camilleri
This is the first in the series.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Other books in this series are:
The
Terracotta Dog
The
Snack Thief
Voice
of the Violin
The
Excursion To Tinda
The
Scent of the Night
Rounding
the Mark |
Recommended by: Iain, student at JMJ |
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The Little World of Don Camillo
by Giovanni Guareschi
This is the first in a
series of books that appear to be rather difficult to
find these days - but well worth the effort.
Beautiful stories of a
priest in the Po Valley after the war and the wrangles
he has with his friend Peppone, the communist mayor.
A gentle, lovely, heartwarming world of good people.
I love these books.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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Follow Your Heart
by Susanna Tamaro
Gentle story, told in form of letters
from grandmother to granddaughter. Rather slight but
very nice.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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Almost Blue
by Carlo Lucarelli
A dark story of a serial killer,
set in Bologna, by an increasingly popular contemporary
author.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Paul, student at JMJ |
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| Films |
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Life is Beautiful (1998)
Director: Roberto Benigni
Actors: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi
Certificate: PG
A controversial
film but I absolutely loved it. It's about a Jewish
family who ends up in a concentration camp but it manages
to be funny. Some people found this offensive but it's
so sensitively and sincerely done that, to me, it's
a marvellous achievement. I laughed, I cried, I reflected.
Truly excellent.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie |
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Il Postino (1995) Director:
Michael Radford
Actors: Philippe Noiret, Massimo Troisi
Certificate: U
A lovely story about the postman who delivers
letters to the exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Georgie
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Respiro (2003)
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Actors: Valeria Golino, Vincenzo Amato
Certificate: 15
Set in a remote
part of Sicily, with STUNNING scenery. A woman who doesn't
fit into the conservative society of her village is
threatened with being taken to Milan for "treatment".
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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Recommended by: Rob, student at JMJ |
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The Name Of The Rose
(1986) Director: Jean-Jacques
Annaud
Actors: Sean Connery, Christian Slater
Certificate: 18
Excellent film of an excellent book.
(See above)
Click here
to buy this now from Amazon.
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to top
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| Two
other films I would recommend, though they're not available
on amazon.co.uk, are:
Casa
Mia, Casa Mia, starring Renato Pozzetto
This is a mild and very
nice comedy about the difficulties of finding somewhere
to live in Rome.
Perdiamoci di Vista, starring
Carlo Verdone and Asia Argento
This is a wonderful film,
both funny and touching, about the relationship between
a brash television presenter and a young woman in a
wheelchair.
Georgie
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Inspired
to learn Italian?
If you live in or near
Manchester, you could start a one-to-one
Italian course with us tomorrow (or whenever you
like).
If you are a complete
beginner, you might like to have a look at our introduction
to the Italian language.
Looking for Italian books, films
or music, in Italian?
Try the Italian
Internet Bookshop.
Back to Recommended
Reading
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