Four Seasons in Rome

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

By: Anthony Doerr

Narrated by: Anthony Doerr

From the author of the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning #1 New York Times bestseller All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land, a "dazzling" (Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran) memoir about art and adventures in Rome.

Anthony Doerr has received many awards—from the New York Public Library, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Library Association. Then came the Rome Prize, one of the most prestigious awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and with it a stipend and a writing studio in Rome for a year. Doerr learned of the award the day he and his wife returned from the hospital with newborn twins.

Exquisitely observed, Four Seasons in Rome describes Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world. 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 neighborhood, whose clamor 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 story of a writer's craft—the process by which he transforms what he sees and experiences into sentences.

An absolute joy.

Parr travelog, part history lesson, part diary, part dream. A treat for the ears and heart. So sad my journey is over.

delightful recount of a precious time

This book recounts a dear, tender and personal time during Anthony's life, raising very young twins in a new and enchanting city. Though I've never been to Rome, his book makes me nostalgic for Rome.

Charming on so many levels

I was so sorry to reach the end of the Doerr family’s adventure. It was such a delight!

Fantastic writer

I loved this book. Anthony Doerr has a beautiful writing style and ability. When I read his descriptions of life and his surroundings in Rome, I was 16 years old and right there with him on my first trip to Rome with my family. I wanted to go back with him to Idaho and follow his adventures with Shaina and the twins. I look forward to his next book as soon as I finish his current one.

Oh my , don't miss this one

For all of us who love Anthony Doerr's writing and insights, this is a very satisfying book. Not only do we get the treat again of reading his beautifully descriptive prose but it is a personal journey which is very endearing. He is learning to be a Dad, a husband when he is a Dad, all the while being in Rome where he and his wife are constantly delighted by the culture, food and passions of the Italians. I have listened to this twice and probably won't stop there.