Sarah Winman

A warm, tender heartbreaking book about a trio of friends, reminiscent of Jules et Jim, and the power of art and love to change daily lives. The Guardian quotes the beginning of the story:
In the prologue to [a:Sarah Winman|4197193|Sarah Winman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357479615p2/4197193.jpg]'s third novel, a woman defies her husband at the local community centre when, upon winning a raffle, she chooses as her prize not the whisky her husband desires but a reproduction of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: “It was her first ever act of defiance. Like cutting off an ear. And she’d made it in public.”
Lovely writing, empathetic characters and a satisfying tale set in Oxford and the South of France amidst the sunflowers. I looked forward to each reading.… (altro)

Elly and her brother Joe are slightly isolated children: Elly is a loner, and Joe is gay. Elly however has Jenny Penny, and Joe has Charlie. Both lose and then find again these seminally important friends. This is a novel about family, about loss, about violent tragedy and even sexual violence. God is Joe's gift to Elly: a pet rabbit who alleviates her loneliness and becomes her confidante.

In the end, family and a few close friends learn to rely on each other to help them through their final, major crisis, and work through the shadows from their past. A sometimes dark and often poignant and witty book, you'll have it demolished in a couple of sittings.… (altro)

A charming, uplifting book, about the power of loving friendships and community. It begins in Tuscany in WWII with a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, and an art historian, Evelyn Skinner, intent on rescuing paintings from the rubble. On to a pub in the East End, the scene of Ulysses' home coming, and the disparate community there, including Peg, his wife. They divorce, but are bound in so many ways forever. An unexpected legacy takes Ulysses back to Tuscany, to live in Florence, where, little by little, his London friends and relations fetch up too. Over the three decades in which this novel takes place, these individuals and his new friends in Florence all live and work together as some large extended family. Florence - not tourist Florence, but a living working vibrant community - is star of the show, and since I lived there too for a year, not long after the 1966 floods which feature in the book, I took this story to my heart. Joy, colour, loyalty, the enduring power of real friendship to overcome life's inevitable difficulties and sorrows - all these are here. And perhaps in the end it's all wrapped up a little too tidily, too happily. But if you want to Feel Good in Time of Covid, this is the book you need.… (altro)