Description
Marco Carrera is ‘the hummingbird,’ a man with the almost supernatural ability to stay still as the world around him continues to change. As he navigates the challenges of life – confronting the death of his sister and the absence of his brother; taking care of his parents as they approach the end of their lives; raising his granddaughter when her mother, Marco’s own child, can no longer be there for her; coming to terms with his love for the enigmatic Luisa – Marco Carrera comes to represent the quiet heroism that pervades so much of our everyday existence. A thrilling novel about the need to look to the future with hope and live with intensity to the very end.
‘Magnificent’ Guardian
‘A towering achievement’ Financial Times
‘Inventive, bold, unexpected’ Sunday Times
‘Everything that makes the novel worthwhile and engaging is here: warmth, wit, intelligence, love, death, high seriousness, low comedy, philosophy, subtle personal relationships and the complex interior life of human beings’ Guardian
‘Not since William Boyd’s Any Human Heart has a novel captured the feast and famine nature of a single life with such invention and tenderness’ Financial Times
‘There is a pleasing sense of having grappled with the real stuff of life: loss, grief, love, desire, pain, uncertainty, confusion, joy, despair – all while having fun’ The Sunday Times
‘Instantly immersive, playfully inventive, effortlessly wise’ Observer
‘Masterly: a cabinet of curiosities and delights, packed with small wonders’ Ian McEwan
‘A real masterpiece. A funny, touching, profound book that made me cry like a little girl on the last page’ Leila Slimani
‘A remarkable accomplishment, a true gift to the world’ Michael Cunningham’
Ardent, gripping, and inventive to the core’ Jhumpa Lahiri
The number 1 international bestseller
Over 300,000 copies sold
Soon to be a major motion picture
Winner of the Premio Strega
Winner of the Prix du Livre Etranger
Book of the Year for the Corriere della Sera
