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Wandering through Life
Donna Leon
A Memoir
Grove Atlantic
September 2023
On Sale: September 19, 2023
208 pages
ISBN: 0802161588
EAN: 9780802161581
Kindle: B0BZ61B8G2
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir
The
internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her
own adventurous life story as she enters her eighties
In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna
Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than
been planned.
Following a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with
frequent visits to her grandfather’s farm and its beloved animals, and summers
spent selling homegrown tomatoes by the roadside, Leon got her first taste of
the classical music and opera that would enrich her life. She also developed a
yen for adventure. In 1976, she made the spontaneous decision to teach English
in Iran, before finding herself swept up in the early days of the 1979
Revolution. After teaching stints in China and Saudi Arabia, she finally landed
in Venice. Leon vividly animates her decades-long love affair with Italy, from
her first magical dinner when serving as a chaperone to a friend, to the hunt
for the perfect cappuccino, to the warfare tactics of grandmothers doing their
grocery shopping at the Rialto Market.
Some things remain constant throughout the decades: her adoration of opera, especially Handel’s vocal music, and her advocacy for the environment, embodied in her passion for bees—which informs the surprising crux of the Brunetti mystery Earthly Remains. Even as mass tourism takes its toll on the patience of residents, Leon’s passion for Venice remains unchanged: its outrageous beauty and magic still captivate her.
Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon poignantly confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading
those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with
music, food, and her sharp sense of humor, Wandering through Life
offers Donna Leon at her most personal.
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