Last Summer in the City

The true quality of this novel is the way it enlightens, with a desperate clearness, a relationship between a man and a city, that is, between crowd and loneliness -- Natalia Ginzburg
The most beautiful love story of the year * Il Giornale *
A masterpiece * Le Figaro *
Dazzling in every detail * Elle *
[A] sublime text, of extraordinary languid beauty and sadness * Sud Ouest *
Calligarich’s time capsule of love and existential drift in a lost Rome, translated into sparkling prose by Curtis, is ripe for a rediscovery * New York Times Book Review *
A sad, seductive declaration of love for Rome * Il Messaggero *
A short, gorgeous, moving and magnificent story of love and solitude -- Il Sole 24 Ore
This book, at once painful and ironic, remains a small gem * La Repubblica *
A heartrending marvel * L’Echo *
Charming, decadent, and emotionally ruthless. . . equal parts Fitzgerald and Antonioni . . . It's wonderful to have this devastating gem at large in the world again -- Andrew Martin, author of Cool for America
Deeply haunting . . . A marvel of a novel * Booklist *
Calligarich’s rendering turns la dolce vita into something more akin to Camus’s L’Etranger in a contemporary-ish urban setting. Out of print for years, this welcome new translation is elegiac and heart-rending * Vogue, Best Books to Read This Summer 2021 *
The account of a lost generation in Rome in the early 1970s (possibly the children of the children of Hemingway’s lost generation) carries the weight of both family history and generational saga * Kirkus *
Evocative . . . Calligarich conjures Italy’s piazzas, parties, beaches, and bars with a mood reminiscent of A Movable Feast . . . the feeling that Leo is alone in the world is poignantly conveyed * Publishers Weekly *