This was yet another of the books I read for the quarterfinals of the BookTube Prize. I had been meaning to read Sarah Winman’s work for ages – I have at least two of her books on my shelves, unread, but this one was quite long and therefore languished on my “maybe, someday” pile. So I was pleased when it showed up on my list, because it’s one I was already interested in.
When I started this book, I have to admit to not being immediately impressed. It took a little while to get the feel of it, to begin to feel the personalities of the characters – and understand the connections between them. The book begins in Italy in 1944, where a young soldier named Ulysses meets an art historian, Evelyn. They spend a very short time together, during which they inspect a particular work of art. They part ways, without any plans to ever meet again. And yet, neither one forgets the other.
We then move to London. We meet an eclectic cast of characters who all orbit a pub called The Stoat and Parrot (yes, the parrot on the cover), and they are all interesting in their own unique ways. Ulysses returns to this group, with whom he has the type of connection that cannot be created, but has to be lived into. Some are rough around the edges, some have damage of their own, but they are loyal and care deeply for one another. Ulysses settles back into his old home, but also doesn’t really. He has not entirely left the war behind, nor has he forgotten some of the people he met during that time in his life.
As the story progresses, Ulysses unexpectedly becomes a father figure to a young girl, and even more unexpectedly is gifted an inheritance that will take him back to Italy, to the very town where he spent time all those years ago. This is where, for me, the story really got going.
I can’t say much more about the story without giving away key elements. But I can tell you the things I loved about it. There are several. The first is that the characters are complex. They each have their own quirks, pain, history and hopes. Each is striving for something that is just out of reach, or pining for something they can never have. I loved all of them, to varying degrees.
I also loved that even though parts are set quite some time ago, others more recent but still not yesterday (I think it ends around the ’70s), most of the characters felt like they wouldn’t be out of place in today’s world (even if they may be too good for it). There are a lot of elements here – lots of LGBT+ undertones and overt representation, women who flout the traditional paths of marriage and motherhood, and men who are more in touch with their emotions than is often portrayed in novels from this era (with exceptions, obviously). There are untraditional families, and people who support and accept their chosen family members no matter what secrets they may or may not be keeping.
There are also things about it that feel magical. The setting in Italy is, mostly, idyllic. There are lots of little touches that just pull it all together – the retired ambulance with a siren that can’t be turned off that heralds the its arrival from a very great distance, the parrot who shows up throughout the book and adds comic relief and great wisdom, the home Ulysses makes that somehow seems to call everyone he loves to it, the accidental meeting of people who were clearly meant to be in one another’s lives, but without it feeling forced. It all just works.
But the time I got to the end of the book, I had fallen completely in love with it. Is it perfect? No, almost no books are. But was it one of the best I’ve read this year? Definitely. It’s one I can see myself revisiting when I’m craving some armchair traveling and a heartwarming story that will leave me feeling like I’ve had the Italian sun on my face and spent some time in the company of a family that shouldn’t fit together, but does. One that creates a feeling of love and belonging to all who come into its orbit, and one that accepts everyone as they come. I probably don’t need to say that this book was my #1 pick for the round.
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amongst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses’s life for the next four decades.
As Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot — a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics — he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills.
With beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, Still Life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a richly drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms. – Goodreads
Book Title: Still Life
Author: Sarah Winman
Series: No
Edition: Paperback/Audiobook
Published By: 4th Estate/Audible
Released: June 1, 2021
Genre: Fiction, History, WWII, LGBT+
Pages: 436
Date Read: July 3-12, 2022
Rating: 8/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.17/5 (24,206 ratings)