Tuscany, 1944: as allied troops, advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of an abandoned villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged historian, who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins, and recall long, forgotten memories of her youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amid the rubble of war, torn Italy, and set off a course of events that will shape Ulysses life for the next four decades. As Ulysses is returns home to London, reimbursing himself, and his crew at the Stoat and Parrot – a motley crew of pub, crawlers and eccentrics, he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows, better than to fate, and returns to the Tuscan Hills. With beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, still life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, a deeply drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms.

ISBN: 9780593330753