A sprawling story of love, valor, and the Risorgimento ... in a wonderful translation by Frederika Randall

A wonderful blend of wit, political perspicuity and exuberant comic invention, The Confessions of an Italian has been called the great novel of the Risorgimento [...] Frederika Randall's admirable new translation now makes it available in all its sprawling, teasing, snook-cocking glory [...] This is a humane piece of fiction, funny and wise, but it is also a candid, astute account of what it feels like to combine lofty patriotic illusions about a People, with a realistic view of how ignoble and mistaken people generally are

Unfailingly lively ... a masterpiece ... The plot of Confessions is rich, picaresque, extravagant, and all is delivered in a fresh, lively prose ... The translator Frederika Randall has been remarkably successful in keeping the novel's flavor and sustaining Nievo's quirkiness and readability over so many pages ... As the governments of the post-Risorgimento period set about imposing a cultural homogeneity on the country, Alessandro Manzoni's conservative and very Catholic masterpiece, The Betrothed (1827), safely set in the distant past, was always going to be preferred to Nievo's rich and wild account of love and politics, where so much was dangerously close to home ... Yet there is no doubt in my mind which author English-speaking readers will prefer now that Confessions of an Italian is at last attractively translated in its entirety

Of all the furore that came out of the Risorgimento, only Manzoni and Nievo really matter today

The one 19th century Italian novel which has [for an Italian reader] that charm and fascination so abundant in foreign literatures

Perhaps the greatest Italian novel of the nineteenth century

All Italy is here, its history, its character, its flaws, and some of the things that Parks loves about the place

The book is, as Tim Parks says, a search for the Italian character, which he evokes in dozens of gorgeously written scenes; but beyond that Parks is exploring the dynamic between tradition and innovation... Underneath everything, Parks is trying to come to a point of loving the world in all its confusion and frustration, and by the book's end he does, he does. Bravo

This latest peg on which to hang another ruminative book about the character of Italy provides Parks with a first-class ticket to ride as a lively, erudite raconteur in salty daily negotiation with what he calls a ‘dystopian paradise’

With Paul Theroux apparently winding down, there might be an opening for Parks as a new laureate of international railways

Parks is also a railway enthusiast and this delightful book is the story of his love-hate relationship with Italian trains

This is not a “railway book” in any conventional sense. It is sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued about the absurdities of ‘Italian ways’

Over thirty years living among the Italians, [Parks] has developed an acute eye for their idiosyncrasies and, over the course of three previous books on Italy, he has created a style sharp and subtle enough to evoke them… As an inglese italianizatto insider-outsider he brings an ideal dual perspective… It is this double vision (along with his superb style) that elevates Parks’s books way above other recent Anglo-Saxon portraits of Italy… [it] adds in turn to the long tradition of excellent English writing on Italy established by Hazlitt, Lawrence and Norman Lewis

Compelling… Parks conveys a detailed, dense, oppressive sense of the inadequacies and idiosyncrasies of the national rail system…but Parks’s railway system in the end links families, reuniting Italian mamas with prodigal sons, and provides a wonderful space for the earwigging of intimate arguments conducted, as ever, on the telefonino

Tim Parks’ detailed descriptions will leave you rocking to the thrum of the tracks, and come dotted with his often bizarre but always comical experiences en route

A hybrid of travel and cultural history…and very amusing it is too… Parks has done Lecce and all Italy proud in this eccentric hosanna to railroad locomotion

Italian Ways gracefully tells you an enormous amount about Italy and its trains. Parks is also very funny, a master of the dry aside

Closely observed and often amusing

An entertaining look at Italian railways, the people who run them and the people who travel on them… Wry, thoughtful, funny, serious and cleverly capturing the essence of modern Italy, it is perfect armchair travelling

Truly extraordinary

Tim Parks embarks on his Italian train odyssey with humour, grim patience, and a great novelist’s insight…full of hilarious anecdotes and insight from a true Italophile

An enjoyable and eccentric journey!

Wonderful

Parks is one of the best living writers of English, and this book is so good you don't want it to end

If, like me, you relish Italy, railways and grumbling, this is the most transporting book

A fun, informative and detailed journey

Unsurprisingly, every bit as good as the original [The Commitments], Doyle is one of those rare writers who never disappoints

Wise, wistful and poignant.

Bittersweet.

Long-awaited sequel.

Doyle’s ear for dialogue is as acute as ever and there’s a lot of amusing asides about contemporary life in this revisiting of much-loved characters.

A book full of Doyle's dark humour mixed with melancholy and wonderful moments of sheer madness.

The feat of The Guts is Doyle’s ability to create in Jimmy a character who hangs together even while so many of his certainties have collapsed. And to get a few good jokes in as well.