Name: Last Summer in the City
Rating: 3.794117647058823 (17 reviews)
ISBN: 9780374600150

Gianfranco Calligarich

A Novel

Last Summer in the City

The first novel from award-winning author Gianfranco Calligarich to be published in English, Last Summer in the City is a witty and despairing classic of Italian literature. Biting, tragic, and endlessly quotable, this translated edition features an introductory appreciation from longtime fan New York Times bestselling author André Aciman. In a city smothering under the summer sun and an overdose of la dolce vita, Leo Gazarra spends his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing between run-down hotels and the homes of his rich and well-educated friends, without whom he would probably starve. At thirty, he’s still drifting: between jobs that mean nothing to him, between human relationships both ephemeral and frayed. Everyone he knows wants to graduate, get married, get rich—but not him. He has no ambitions whatsoever. Rather than toil and spin, isn’t it better to submit to the alienation of the Eternal City, Rome, sometimes a cruel and indifferent mistress, sometimes sweet and sublime? There can be no half measures with her, either she’s the love of your life or you have to leave her. First discovered by Natalia Ginzburg, Last Summer in the City is a forgotten classic of Italian literature, a great novel of a stature similar to that of The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in the Rye. Gianfranco Calligarich’s enduring masterpiece has drawn comparisons to such writers as Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, and Jonathan Franzen and is here made available in English for the first time.

Winter and spring were exchanging their last blows. The seasons change at night, unbeknown to the people, and we were witnessing a spectacle whose grandeur was only equaled by the silence with which it crept up on us."

This novel is a hazy dreamlike read written with a strikingly cinematic style. The way the seasons blur and bleed into one another mirrors the characters themselves, drifting through streets in alcoholic, half-blinded wanderings. Everything feels suspended between moments: between youth and adulthood, winter and spring, longing and loss. There’s a strong sense of youthful yearning and nostalgia that lingers long after you put the book down.

I’m not usually a descriptive reader, I tend to prefer dialogue-driven stories. But the prose here pulls you in completely. The descriptions don’t feel excessive or ornamental and instead they immerse you in a fever dream where atmosphere matters more than clarity, and emotion matters more than plot.

The novel is deeply tragic, yet quietly so. Its melancholy and restless longing strongly echo 

capturing that same aching confusion of youth and the sense of being on the edge of something you don’t yet understand. It’s a story that doesn’t announce itself loudly, but seeps into you like alcohol or those long summer days. 

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"Winter and spring were exchanging their last blows. The seasons change at night, unbeknown to the people, and we were witnessing a spectacle whose grandeur was only equaled by the silence with which it crept up on us."

This novel is a hazy dreamlike read written with a strikingly cinematic style. The way the seasons blur and bleed into one another mirrors the characters themselves, drifting through streets in alcoholic, half-blinded wanderings. Everything feels suspended between moments: between youth and adulthood, winter and spring, longing and loss. There’s a strong sense of youthful yearning and nostalgia that lingers long after you put the book down.

I’m not usually a descriptive reader, I tend to prefer dialogue-driven stories. But the prose here pulls you in completely. The descriptions don’t feel excessive or ornamental and instead they immerse you in a fever dream where atmosphere matters more than clarity, and emotion matters more than plot.

The novel is deeply tragic, yet quietly so. Its melancholy and restless longing strongly echo The Catcher in the Rye, capturing that same aching confusion of youth and the sense of being on the edge of something you don’t yet understand. It’s a story that doesn’t announce itself loudly, but seeps into you like alcohol or those long summer days. 

Danielle

Giving off every Eric Rohmer film I’ve seen. Definitely not for everyone. Very sad read.

Tommaso

Sarah Erle

A cult classic of Italian literature published in English for the first time, with a foreword by André Acimen, author of Call Me By Your Name In the late 1960s, Leo Gazzara left his family in Milan and moved to Rome for work. Soon unemployed, he has spent his time in an alcoholic haze, bouncing between hotels, bars, romantic entanglements, and the homes of his rich and well-educated friends. Rome is indifferent. Leo drifts, aimless and alone. On the evening of his thirtieth birthday, he meets Arianna, a young woman who is both fragile and seductive. All night they drive the city in Leo’s run-down Alfa Romeo, talking and talking. They eat brioche for breakfast, drink through the dawn, drive to the sea and back. A whirlwind beginning. This is the story of the year Leo fell in love and lost everything. Intense, brief, witty and devastating, Last Summer in the City is a newly rediscovered classic of Italian literature. Translated into English for the first time by Howard Curtis, Gianfranco Calligarich’s romantic and despairing debut is reminiscent of The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises and The Catcher in the Rye.

Last Summer in the City A Novel

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