The Temptation to Be Happy: The International Bestseller - Softcover

Marone, Lorenzo

4.08

6,004 ratings by Goodreads

9781786072887: The Temptation to Be Happy: The International Bestseller

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786072882 ISBN 13: 9781786072887

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2017

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Cesare is a seventy-seven-year-old widower and cynical troublemaker. He has lived his whole life by his own rules and has no intention of changing now. Aside from an intermittent fling with a nurse called Rossana, he spends his days avoiding the old cat lady next door and screening calls from his children., But when the enigmatic Emma moves in next door with her strange and sinister husband, Cesare suspects there is more to their relationship than meets the eye. He enlists the other residents to help him investigate and soon discovers a new and unexpected sense of purpose that leads him to risk everything for a future he had never thought possible. Laced with humour and pathos in equal measure, this is a delightful book to savour, for young and old alike.

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Review:

‘Sad, funny, wise and unblinkingly honest, this is truly wonderful.’

(Daily Mail)

‘Uh-oh, here comes another one of those colourful curmudgeons who drop pearls of senior wisdom on their way to a new lease on life. Cesare certainly fits the stereotype, but he’s funny, interesting and grumpy enough to stay on the winning side of the formula.’

(New York Times Book Review)

‘Immensely charming... Uplifting and very much on the side of life.’

(Mail on Sunday)

‘Marone’s characters, irreverent and absurd, embark on adventures they had ceased to allow themselves to imagine in this darkly comedic take on ageing.’

(World Literature Today)

‘An impressive literary feat...a charming tale of opportunities taken and missed.’

(Reading Magazine)

‘Lorenzo Marone is the new voice that literature needs.’

(Corriere della Sera)

‘Unforgettable...comical and cynical while remaining tender and dramatic.’

(Corriere della Sera)

‘The Temptation to be Happy is that very rare thing - a book that can make you both laugh and cry... Marone's undoubted skill [is] demonstrated in some beautiful lyrical passages.'

(TripFiction)

‘Poignant...[with] moments of touching eccentricity.’

(bookoxygen)

‘A wonderful novel about ageing – ironic and light-footed.’

(Italien Magazin)

About the Author:

Lorenzo Marone was born in 1974. Originally trained as a lawyer, he gave up his career to follow his passion for writing. His first novel, The Temptation to Be Happy, is a major bestseller in Italy. It has been translated into fifteen languages and was used as the inspiration for a film released in Italy in April 2017. Lorenzo Marone lives in Naples with his wife and son.

Shaun Whiteside’s translations from Italian include books by Tiziano Scarpa, Paolo Giordano, Melissa Panarello and Luther Blissett/Wu Ming Collective. He lives in London.

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