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

Written 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781442394988

Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr es autor de los libros de relatos Memory Wall y The Shell Collector, las memorias Four Seasons in Rome y las novelas Sobre Grace (Suma de Letras, 2016) y La luz que no puedes ver (Suma de Letras, 2015). Esta última ha sido finalista del National Book Award y ganadora del Premio Pulitzer de Ficción 2015, y se ha convertido en un bestseller en todo el mundo, consiguiendo extraordinarias críticas. Las obras de Doerr han logrado numerosos premios más, entre ellos cuatro O. Henry Prizes, el Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, el Rome Prize, el New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, el National Magazine Award for Fiction, tres Pushcart Prizes, dos Pacific Northwest Book Awards, tres Ohioana Book Awards, el 2010 Story Prize, considerado el más prestigioso premio de Estados Unidos para un libro de relatos, y el Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, el mayor premio del mundo concedido a un único relato. En 2007, la revista literaria británica Granta incluyó a Doerr en su lista de «Los 21 mejores novelistas estadounidenses». Vive en Boise, Idaho, con su mujer y sus dos hijos.

Reviews for Four Seasons in Rome

[Shawn Boyce · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought Shauna should have included more. But still good.

[gfg855dg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A vivid memoir of family and Rome-pleasant for unwinding and dreaming about far off places- heavy on the descriptive language in some parts, but thoroughly enjoyable and calming...

[Eileen Catterton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Richly worded - captivates humanity's beauty, foibles , and nuances. This is my 4th Doerr work, and I hope he has a prolific career for my own sake. ..I so enjoy the beauty of his writing.

[Virginia Traver · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book! The walks through Rome combined with raising young children creates so many scenes in the reader’s mind to carry throughout the day…and the light.

[bloodbanker1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn't think I would finish this when I picked it up on Kindle Unlimited. I saw the author and did not realize that this was not a work of fiction. I adore this author and started reading the book based on that fact alone. I could not stop reading it.

Anthony Doerr's writing transported me to Rome. His words painted a portrait of the city, the history and the people. I could see and smell the bakery and the market. I could see and hear the elderly smiling and cooing at his twin boys.

I was in Rome many, many years ago. I was a child at the time and I know I never appreciated it then. Reading Doerr's book makes me want to go back now and revisit it.

[etxgardener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author received a fellowship for a year in Rome ostensibly to write a novel about occupied Europe during World War II (All the Light You Cannot See?). He doesn’t seem to have written a page of the novel, but this lyrical portrait of both Rome and living abroad with his two infant twin sons is wonderful and justifies however much money the4 foundation forked over to subsidize him for a year.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Though well-written on site reporting, book can be Exhausting to read.

[carriewuj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes you read the right book in the right place and that makes all the difference. That was true of Hemingway's Moveable Feast when I was in Paris and now applies to Doerr's book about Rome which I read while in Italy. This memoir recounts a year he spent there on a "fellowship" in 2004 while his twins were in their first year of life. It is about being a "stranger in a strange land" both literally as applied to Italy and metaphorically as it applies to parenthood. On both counts he had a huge learning curve. But what makes this book so magical is his ability to pay attention. He finds the wonder both in the dominating force of the past in Rome's BC history and in the fleeting moments of the present while his boys master milestones in their first year of life. His writing is as beautiful as ever, and he is actually working on All the Light We Cannot See during this time. His thoughts and observations on life and art are as breathtaking as some of the sites he visits in Rome: "Not-knowing is always more thrilling than knowing. Not-knowing is where hope and art and possibility and invention come from. It is not-knowing, that old, old thing that allows everything to be renewed." (154) Perfect for an eternal city of miracles of faith, architecture, engineering, art, and humanity.

[breic-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not quite what I expected. This feels like Doerr has taken his daily writing exercise and nicely edited it down. I appreciate the good editing, and the occasional sparks of good writing (although it is mostly too florid for my taste). It doesn't add up to much.

> A journal entry is for its writer; it helps its writer refine, perceive, and process the world. But a story—a finished piece of writing—is for its reader; it should help its reader refine, perceive, and process the world—the one particular world of the story, which is an invention, a dream.

An easy joke, but I still laughed:

> It's not until I'm back on via Carini, halfway home, that I realize I was hollering for grapefruit sauce. Grapefruit sauce with basil.

[alanteder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a lovely memoir filled with very evocative portraits of people and places in Rome and often fascinating trivia about the "Eternal City." Writer Doerr with his wife and 2 newborn sons spent a year in Rome from mid-2004 to mid-2005 thanks to the American Academy of Arts.

Doerr worked on the early writing and research for his later Pulitzer Prize winning novel "All the Light We Cannot See" (2014) and completed the short story "Village 113" about the Chinese Three Gorges Dam project (collected in "Memory Wall" (2007) during this time and wrote his notes and journal entries that became the basis of this book.

Thanks to my friend Karan for introducing me to and gifting this book! (less)

[kerns222 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Shows that:
if you keep a journal
if you get a fancy prize that lets you live somewhere interesting
if you (and spouse-wife) just had twins
if you just wrote a great book
then you can publish anything
(fun to read, easy to read, life in Rome-speaking no Italian and changing 2000 diapers)

[devilish2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautiful meditation on writing, Rome, twins, life, architecture, history, learning Italian, light, starlings. Motifs recur and curl back into the storyline.

[roamin1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best book I've read in a long time. Doerr writes poetically and his descriptions of Rome are verbal pictures. He goes through his year as a Fellow at the American Academy. We learn about his crreative life, his young family, Rome, and Italy. And we learn about Doerr.

[baystatera · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Before Anthony Doerr became famous for the novel All the Light We Cannot See, he had to write the book. He writes about working on it (and about not working on it) in Four Seasons in Rome, a memoir about the author’s year in Rome with a studio to write in and an apartment to live in, covered by a stipend.
Literary and lyrical except for a few episodes of parenting panic and moments when he wonders “what was I thinking when I accepted the Rome Prize with newborn twins?”, this book about reading, writing, and the terrifying and wonderful experience of being a new parent and living for a year in the heart of Rome when you don’t speak much Italian will appeal to readers of literary memoirs.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Imagine coming home from the hospital after your wife has just given birth to twins and discovering you have won an award that will send you to Rome for a year, an award you didn't ask for or even know about. So, six months later you pack up aforementioned wife and boys and off to Rome you go. Doerr spends the next year reading Pliny, exploring the ancient city and marveling at life BT (before twins) and AT (after twins). He is observant and witty on all accounts but by his own admission is too busy staring at Italy to write anything constructive. Until Four Seasons is born. If you are to read just one page of Four Seasons in Rome I strongly recommend reading page 141, starting with "What is Rome".

[jwood652 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Anthony Doerr won the prestigious Rome prize, getting a year in the fascinating city. It happened to be the year that Pope John Paul II died and Benedict XVI became pope. Joining him was his wife, along with their six month old twin boys. With Doerr's tremendous writing skills, he lovingly describes present day Rome, its colorful sights, culture and history enhanced by enjoying this year with his young sons. This book is a testament to one of the world's greatest and most ancient cities as well as the joys and challenges of parenting twins.

[dmtcer-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book; now I wish someone would give ME a scholarship, all expenses paid to live in Rome and write for a year!

[satyridae · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't enter into this book very deeply. I kept getting distracted by the author's whining about how hard writing is. I agree with Michele, I'd love to read this book as written by his wife. Some of the vignettes were lovely, but for the most part it was too self-conscious, too precious- even the self-deprecating parts felt forced to me.

[judithrs · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. Anthony Doerr. 2007. I wanted to book a flight to Rome about 10 pages into this book! On the day the author and his wife bring twin boys home from the hospital, they receive notice that he has won the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This is a lyrical account of that year. He is supposed to be working on a novel about WWII but finds himself reading Pliny musing on the art, history and beauty of Rome and learning how to be a father, and struggling with Italian.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Doerr, a fiction writer, wins an award that provides him with a place to stay and writing time in Rome for a year. The problem? His wife has just given birth to twins and his life has forever changed. Doerr spends a tremendous amount of time writing about how he is having trouble writing. If you can get past that, there is great beauty to be found in the writing he achieves.

[aliciamalia · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is another NPR book, but unfortunately one that makes for a better interview than read. It's about an American couple living for a year in Rome with 6-month old twins. That's about all there is to it. It's fairly sweet and charming, but never really rises about the level of an edited journal.

[volvomom_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Yet another vacation read! Of course, being a mom of twins I was hooked when I saw that the book dealt with someone traveling abroad with newborn twins. However, I found it to get a bit too "cootchie-cootchie" cutsie on the parenting side of things, at least for me. Some of Doerr's views on living in Rome presented a neat cross-cultural perspective, which I did appreciate. Otherwise, the book was ok.