Debra recommends: Four Seasons in Rome : on twins, insomnia, and the biggest funeral in the history of the world

The recipient of an American Academy fellowship, the Rome Prize, Anthony Doerr travels to Rome for one year with his wife and six month old twins prepared to complete his novel. He is pleasantly diverted from his writing by the wonders of the Eternal city, the beautiful Italian countryside and the joys and trials of parenting twin baby boys.
Doerr is an outstanding, award winning writer (New York Public Library, National Endowment for the Arts, American Library Association) whose intimate reflections will leave you planning a Roman holiday.

Following is a sample of Doerr's writing describing a rain storm shortly after the family arrives in Rome.

'Our first storm: Lightning lashes the domes of churches. Hail clatters on the terrace. In the early morning, the air seems shinier and purer than I've seen it. Dawn stretches across the gardens, pulling tiny shadows out of the blades of grass, draining through the needles of the umbrella pines. The old walls look washed, almost new: a thousand speckled tints of bronze, trailing lacework of ivy, glossy tangles of capers'

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

-DB