Roman Year: A Memoir

(Hardback, Large Print Edition)

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Description

The author of Call Me by Your Name returns with a deeply romantic memoir of his time in Rome while on the cusp of adulthood.

In Roman Year, Andr Aciman captures the period of his adolescence that began when he and his family first set foot in Rome, after being expelled from Egypt. Though Acimans family had been well-off in Alexandria, all vestiges of their status vanished when they fled, and the author, his younger brother, and his deaf mother moved into a rented apartment in Romes Via Clelia. Though dejected, Acimans mother and brother found their way into life in Rome, while Aciman, still unmoored, burrowed into his bedroom to read one book after the other. The world of novels eventually allowed him to open up to the city and, through them, discover the beating heart of the Eternal City.

Acimans time in Rome did not last long before he and his family moved across the ocean, but by the time they did, he was leaving behind a city he loved. In this memoir, the author, a genius of the poetry of the place (John Domini, The Boston Globe), conjures the sights, smells, tastes, and people of Rome as only he can. Aciman captures, as if in amber, a living portrait of himself on the brink of adulthood and the city he worshipped at that pivotal moment. Roman Year is a treasure, unearthed by one of our greatest prose stylists.

Reviews

"In rapturous prose, Aciman captures the shocks of beauty he experienced . . . during what amounted to a brief interlude on his way to the U.S. His poetic exploration of place and probing of what constitutes a home makes for exquisitely moving reading." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A writers emotional center of gravity and his authorial vision emerge in a wistfully remembered adolescent moment in Rome." Booklist (starred review)

"Fans of Andr Acimans novel Call Me by Your Name will swoon for this vivid, heartfelt account of the time he spent as a teenager in Rome . . . A standout memoir from a master of emotional nuance who always reminds us to 'look for the human.'" Jessica Olin, Oprah Daily

Author Bio

Andr Aciman is the New York Times bestselling author of Call Me By Your Name, Out of Egypt, Eight White Nights, False Papers, Alibis, Harvard Square, Enigma Variations, and Find Me. He's the editor of The Proust Project and teaches comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He lives with his wife in Manhattan.