The Rome Plague Diaries: A Writer and His City in the Pandemic

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Description

On the first morning of Rome's Covid-19 lockdown Matthew Kneale felt an urge to connect with friends and acquaintances and began writing an email, describing where he was, what was happening and what it felt like, and sent it to everyone he could think of. He was soon composing daily reports as he tried to comprehend a period of time, when everyone's lives suddenly changed and Italy struggled against an epidemic, that was so strange, so troubling and so fascinating that he found it impossible to think about anything else.

Having lived in Rome for eighteen years, Matthew has grown to know the capital and its citizens well and this collection of brilliant diary pieces connects what he has learned about the city with this extraordinary, anxious moment, revealing the Romans through the intense prism of the coronavirus crisis.

Reviews

The novelist Matthew Kneale has lived in Rome for 18 years and his response to the news of Italy's first Covid lockdown was to unburden himself by writing a long email to family, friends and even people he'd lost touch with years ago... Collected here, his wry and questioning meanderings lace an ordeal with charm. * New Statesman *
Fascinating... It's a book to delight anyone with an interest in European culture. * NB Magazine *
Joie de vivre radiates from every page. * Strong Words Magazine *
An unflinching look at the Italian capital during its shutdown last year. * Monocle *

Author Bio

Matthew Kneale is the author of seven novels and two works of non-fiction. His debut novel, Whore Banquets, won the Somerset Maugham Award, Sweet Thames won John Llewellyn Rhys, and English Passengers, shortlisted for the Man Booker and Miles Franklin, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2000. His latest non-fiction book, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, was a Waterstones Book of the Month. For the last fifteen years he has lived in Rome with his wife and two children.