Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

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Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
Anthony Doerr

On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins, Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize, an award that gave him a year-long stipend and studio in Rome…‘Four Seasons in Rome’ charts the repercussions of that day, describing Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world, and the first year of parenthood. He reads Pliny, Dante, and Keats – the chroniclers of Rome who came before him – and visits the piazzas, temples, and ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He and his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, and bakers of the neighbourhood, whose clamour of stories and idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself.This intimate and revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood and a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

Four Seasons in Rome

On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

Anthony Doerr

Copyright (#ulink_7e8b8037-9f26-556c-960c-dffe2413e233)

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thEstate.co.uk (http://www.4thEstate.co.uk)

Originally published in the United States in 2007 by Scribner

First published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2008

This ebook edition published by 4th Estate in 2016

Copyright © Anthony Doerr 2007

Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com

The right of Anthony Doerr to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Ebook Edition © June 2010 ISBN: 9780007390533

Version: 2016-12-01

for Henry and Owen

Rain falls, clouds rise, rivers dry up, hailstorms sweep down; rays scorch, and impinging from every side on the earth in the middle of the world, then are broken and recoil and carry with them the moisture they have drunk up. Steam falls from on high and again returns on high. Empty winds sweep down, and then go back again with their plunder. So many living creatures draw their breath from the upper air; but the air strives in the opposite direction, and the earth pours back breath to the sky as if to a vacuum. Thus as nature swings to and fro like a kind of sling, discord is kindled by the velocity of the world’s motion.

PLINY THE ELDER, FROM THE

Natural History, AD 77

Contents

Cover (#u36fbea39-92fa-5221-87f7-85abaab05880)

Title Page (#u27772c79-b521-5389-8713-4a349a86afc5)

Copyright (#u08d5ea68-bfb0-5f85-a0a8-cf84befb4d2d)

Dedication (#u4e03df33-dd82-5f5a-9216-05ed933ac753)

Epigraph (#ua73d940a-800c-5e99-874e-3270d4d270a5)

FALL (#ua2d31a29-9824-5eca-a344-a6a254ccd17b)

WINTER (#u11b46785-1f7c-5bdb-8a51-4f8e1f588b0d)

SPRING (#u439b6f56-51c2-50d5-8025-a7351b02810d)

SUMMER (#u6193fae4-5e7f-5c48-b589-6746ccbf5be3)

Notes (#u177f14cb-9749-5401-9ebb-27e1c8f2b1c6)

Acknowledgments (#ue1d31e54-ab20-50b4-9aca-1230cdb31395)

Keep Reading (#u08165fce-7e96-51b9-b5f1-e5ccc589ff2a)

About the Author (#u190f3c91-ca71-5c2b-aa14-cb44ab4d69ca)

Also by Anthony Doerr (#u6dd7332f-9cef-5514-ba14-701d43e9d088)

About the Publisher (#ufa736324-9ca3-5ed1-91d9-7f4c22b36d0e)