A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE GUARDIAN: 'DEEPLY PLEASURABLE' A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE SPECTATOR: 'WHAT A JOY' 'Magnificent' Guardian 'A towering achivement' Financial Times 'Inventive, bold, unexpected' Sunday Times 'Everything that makes the novel worthwhile and engaging is here: warmth, wit, intelligence, love, death, high seriousness, low comedy, philosophy, subtle personal relationships and the complex interior life of human beings' Guardian 'Not since William Boyd's Any Human Heart has a novel captured the feast and famine nature of a single life with such invention and tenderness' Financial Times 'There is a pleasing sense of having grappled with the real stuff of life: loss, grief, love, desire, pain, uncertainty, confusion, joy, despair - all while having fun' The Sunday Times 'Instantly immersive, playfully inventive, effortlessly wise' Observer 'Masterly: a cabinet of curiosities and delights, packed with small wonders' Ian McEwan 'A real masterpiece. A funny, touching, profound book that made me cry like a little girl on the last page' Leila Slimani 'A remarkable accomplishment, a true gift to the world' Michael Cunningham 'Ardent, gripping, and inventive to the core' Jhumpa Lahiri Marco Carrera is 'the hummingbird,' a man with the almost supernatural ability to stay still as the world around him continues to change. As he navigates the challenges of life - confronting the death of his sister and the absence of his brother; taking care of his parents as they approach the end of their lives; raising his granddaughter when her mother, Marco's own child, can no longer be there for her; coming to terms with his love for the enigmatic Luisa - Marco Carrera comes to represent the quiet heroism that pervades so much of our everyday existence. A thrilling novel about the need to look to the future with hope and live with intensity to the very end. THE NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Over 300,000 copies sold Soon to be a major motion picture Winner of the Premio Strega Winner of the Prix du Livre Etranger Book of the Year for the Corriere della Sera

A sophisticated psychological novel from one of Europe's most exciting writers. '"Are you an unhappy man?" That's what the journalist said to me. It was her last question.' Gianni Orzan has no reason to feel unhappy. He has just been awarded a prize for his children's writing and a cheque for fifteen million lire. He is blissfully married to Anna and is a doting father to an eight-year-old son, Franceschino. He loves film and is an avid chess player. He is a man in complete control of his life. But when Gianni leaves the award ceremony, a chain of events are set in motion that will shatter this perfect life. In an uncharacteristically rash moment he accepts a ride from an unlicensed cab driver. As soon as the car pulls off he feels unnerved. At the first set of lights the driver turns, smiles at Gianni, a pistol butt poking from his belt, and says - 'So, Franceschino has finally learned to ride his bicycle...'. Gianni bolts from the cab. But it's too late; in this briefest of moments the serenity of Gianni Orzan's life has been destroyed. Later, after he has sent his wife and son to stay with family, the same cab driver appears at his door and introduces himself as Gianni's father's oldest friend. He certainly talks accurately about Gianni's father, who died less than a fortnight ago. In fact, he seems to know much more about Gianni's respectable, pious father than Gianni ever did, or perhaps ever wants to. Reminiscent of Ian McEwan's 'Enduring Love', 'The Force of the Past' is a breathtakingly clever and entirely gripping story of how a calm, ordinary life can rapidly unravel.

After an afternoon of surfing, television executive Pietro Paladini and his brother Carlo spot two women struggling far off in the waves. Pietro and Carlo race to save them, and after fighting the currents and exhaustion, bring them safely to shore. Now late to get home, Pietro hurries up from the beach only to find his young daughter, Claudia, wide-eyed at the side of the road. His wife has unexpectedly died while he was saving the life of another. After numbly feeling their way through the rituals of death and the end of summer, the school year begins. On that first day, Pietro decides to wait for Claudia and work from his car in the parking lot outside her school; he is also waiting for the full force of grief to press down on their shoulders, to suffocate them. What if today is the day that happens?What if Claudia needs him? On the second day, Pietro again waits for his daughter ...and the third, and the fourth. He finds some semblance of peace in waiting, and strangely others find something similar in him: his colleagues, friends and family begin to visit him at the parking lot to share their problems. It's there that the woman he saved finds him, stirring in him a distracting, overbearing lust that stands in the way of his grief. Through their angry, unforgiving union, Pietro's days outside the school reach their culmination, and his loss is finally transformed into acceptance. At turns funny and dark, unexpectedly compelling and powerfully real, "Quiet Chaos" takes readers into the odd, beautiful moments of the everyday that offer opportunity for contemplation, and ultimately, renewal.