As social history, with something of the flavor and immediacy of fiction, this story of a famous family stretching from 1762 to 1907 is interesting and well done. The book skillfully stitches together biographical facts and numerous family letters. --Publishers Weekly

Although Tolstoy maintained that 'happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, ' contemporary readers of this work will identify with the illnesses of children, deaths of relatives, and all-too-frequent filial requests for money that confronted Italian literary giant Alessandro Manzoni, author of I Promessi sposi. Based on the family's voluminous correspondence, Ginzburg's portrayal is personal rather than literary, focusing on Manzoni family members; but a vivid picture of 18th- and 19th-century Italy and the literary scene in 19th-century Paris also emerges. --Library Journal

The difference between this family saga and the ordinary family saga is the difference, say, between War and Peace and Dallas. --Boston Globe

Italian novelist Ginzburg uses the epistolary technique to craft a brilliant biography of four generations of a complex, frequently tortured family . . . an extraordinarily moving and evocative book." --Kirkus Reviews

Original, engrossing, appalling. --bestselling author and literary critic Mary McCarthy

Praise for Natalia Ginzburg's work

Clarity, precision and wit mark the work of Natalia Ginzburg. -- The New York Times Book Review

I wish more people would read the Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg. -- Mary Gordon, Mother Jones

Natalia Ginzburg must surely be one of literature's most provocative and moving writers. -- Elle magazine

Realistic, anchored by vivifying detail, crowded with wonderfully vibrant characters, luminous with deep feeling, responsiveness, and sympathy. -- Publishers Weekly

Ginzburg draws her readers into her deceptively charming essays with cascades of alluring, everyday detail, then stealthily broaches moral questions of great weight and complexity. Wryly witty, acutely observant, and unfailingly valiant, Ginzburg is a revelation, a spur, and a joy. -- Booklist

A glowing light of modern Italian literature . . . Ginzburg's magic is the utter simplicity of her prose, suddenly illuminated by one word that makes a lightning streak of a plain phrase. . . . As direct and clean as if it were carved in stone, it yet speaks thoughts of the heart. -- The New York Times Book Review