Falling Palace by Dan Hofstadter
A memorable portrait of the volcanic city from an American writer who has lost his heart to the place and to a mysterious Neapolitan woman. Weaving the intrigue of a romance with the haunting evocation of a legendary metropolis, Dan Hofstadter brilliantly reveals Naples to us. He is our guide to its decaying architectural beauty - the falling palace of his dreams - and the theatre of the city's everyday life; to the ancient festivals that regularly overtake the jumbled streets; the conversations in dialect that start in the cafes and continue into the night; the countless curio shops where treasures mingle with kitsch. And he brings to life on the page his Neapolitan friends, people whose gestures and superstitions seem as old as Vesuvius: chief among them, Benedetta, the object of his fascination and affections, and, like her home city, at once inviting and unfathomable. Hofstadter's Naples is an amalgam of equivocal beauty, betrayals and secrets, a wounded city whose commonplace wonders are superbly conjured by this rich and lyrical book.
The city prevails on every page.. literally breathtaking. -- Shirley Hazzard * New York Times *
Hypnotic and heartbreaking, Falling Palace had me shouting Napoli Saluto all over again. * Sunday Times *
Sensational ... a tale of pure, absorbing delightfulness. Like the literary love-child of Eco and Baedeker, he delights and informs in equal measure. * Sunday Telegraph *
Hypnotic and heartbreaking, Dan Hofstadter's Falling Palace, a memoir of a failed Neapolitan love affair, afforded the year's most tenderly wrought prose. -- Christopher Bray * New Statesman *
Hypnotic and heartbreaking, Falling Palace had me shouting Napoli Saluto all over again. * Sunday Times *
Sensational ... a tale of pure, absorbing delightfulness. Like the literary love-child of Eco and Baedeker, he delights and informs in equal measure. * Sunday Telegraph *
Hypnotic and heartbreaking, Dan Hofstadter's Falling Palace, a memoir of a failed Neapolitan love affair, afforded the year's most tenderly wrought prose. -- Christopher Bray * New Statesman *
Dan Hofstadter is the author of three previous books, most recently The Love Affair as a Work of Art. He lives in the United States and was for eight years a regular contributor to The New Yorker.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781861974358 |
| ISBN 10 | 1861974353 |
| Title | Falling Palace |
| Author | Dan Hofstadter |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Profile Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2006-02-24 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |