Still Life
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF DYMOCKS BOOK OF THE YEAR
A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2021
A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK
WINNER OF THE INWORDS LITERARY AWARD
‘Sheer joy’ Graham Norton
‘Utterly beautiful … filled with hope’ Joanna Cannon, author of Three Things About Elsie
‘A bear-hug of a book’ Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson’s Beetle
From the author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a big-hearted story of people brought together by love, war, art and the ghost of E.M. Forster.
1944, in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa, as bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening.
Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner is a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy. She has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the wreckage and relive memories of the time she encountered EM Forster and had her heart stolen by an Italian maid in a particular Florentine room with a view.
Evelyn’s talk of truth and beauty plants a seed in Ulysses’ mind that will shape the trajectory of his life – and of those who love him – for the next four decades.
Moving from the Tuscan Hills and piazzas of Florence, to the smog of London’s East End, Still Life is a sweeping, joyful novel about beauty, love, family and fate.
‘Four course nourishment for all Winman fans’ Patrick Gale, author of Take Nothing With You
‘Extraordinary . . . my book of the year’ Liz Nugent, author of Our Little Cruelties
‘The kind of story that bolsters the heart and soul’ Donal Ryan, author of Strange Flowers
Sunday Times bestseller 09/06/2021
”'The sheer joy in Sarah Winman’s storytelling is completely infectious. I’ve loved spending time with this unforgettable cast of characters in extraordinary times and places” - Graham Norton
”'Winman’s pages teem with boisterous, exuberant life … The novel has verve, charm and tremendous heart” - Sunday Times
”'Exquisite … There are not enough superlatives to contain the magnitude and beauty of this novel” - Sunday Independent
”'Sentence after sentence, character by character, Still Life becomes poetry” - New York Times Book Review
”'A tonic for wanderlust and a cure for loneliness. It’s that rare, affectionate novel that makes one feel grateful to have been carried along” - The Washington Post
”'Teeming with unforgettable characters and oozing atmosphere, it’s a joyous, summery ode to love, art and poetry” - Hephzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday
”'Rich, deeply moving and filled with hope. Sarah Winman is one of the greatest storytellers of our time” - Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
”'A gorgeous, generous story of kind hearts and kindred spirits … [A] hopeful, happy, intensely humane novel” - Daily Mirror
”'Readers will want to prolong the pleasure of Sarah Winman’s beautiful novel Still Life for as long as possible” - Donal Ryan, author of From a Low and Quiet Sea
”'Embodies the full generosity of the human spirit” - Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
‘Gorgeous … luscious and clever’The Times -
”'In Still Life, [Winman] emerges now as the great narrator of hope” - Helen Cullen, Irish Times