The Temptation to Be Happy: The International Bestseller

(Paperback, MMP)

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Description

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.

Reviews

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

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 hes funny, interesting and grumpy enough to stay on the winning side of the formula.

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

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

An impressive literary feata charming tale of opportunities taken and missed.

Lorenzo Marone is the new voice that literature needs.

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

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.'

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

A wonderful novel about ageing ironic and light-footed.

Packed with dark humour, the writer's embodiment of a near-octogenarian is an impressive feat.

A charming tale.

A toast to real happiness!

A book that touches the heart...wonderfully honest, ingenious, quick and tragic.

This novel owes its success largely to Lorenzo Marones wonderful character Cesare Annunziata, and to the funny and paradoxical fact that this is an excellent coming-of-age novel whose protagonist is over seventy years old.

Comic, ironic, sarcastic descriptions that will make you smile but will also make you take a deep look at life in old age.

Author Bio

Lorenzo Maronewas born in 1974. Originallytrained as a lawyer, he gave up his career to follow his passion for writing. He lives in Naples with his wife and son. Shaun Whitesides translations from Italian include books by Tiziano Scarpa, Paolo Giordano, Melissa Panarello and Luther Blissett/Wu Ming Collective. He lives in London.