Sentimental Economy: A Novel

by Edoardo Nesi, Antony Shugaar Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Overview

From the Strega Prize-winning author of Story of My People comes an astute, multifaceted essay on the seismic shifts of 2020 and how he and people from all walks of life are adapting.

Attempting to make sense of the incredible upheaval of 2020-from the devastating impact of COVID-19 to the sudden loss of his father-Edoardo Nesi considers the changing global economy and its effect on our lives. He shares the stories of Alberto Magelli, a small textile entrepreneur; Livia Firth, a prominent advocate for sustainability; Elisa Martelli, a young Sangiovese winemaker; Enrico Giovannini, a leading economist and statistician; Rino Pratesi, a proud butcher from the heart of Tuscany; and more.

From the overworked to the unemployed, we're all grappling with difficult questions about our current disorienting world: Will we ever feel healthy again, and what will it take to regain “normality”? What does progress mean today? Have science and technology let us down? What will the increased prevalence of remote working mean for our cities, and for our lifestyles generally? Deftly weaving together the personal and the economic, Nesi takes us on a fascinating journey to understanding.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini elevates this poignant audiobook. He gives this series of connected essays a pliable reading that emulates the author’s voice, which ranges from authoritative (on politics and economics) to interrogative (on Italy’s future). His narration captures the work’s moods—sometimes despairing, occasionally celebratory—through apt pacing. His tone befits a work that combines memoir, economic analysis, and speculation. A novelist, translator, and former member of the Italian parliament, Nesi was, tellingly, an owner of a now shuttered woolen mill. He bemoans the loss of such artisanal industries. He also writes movingly about a family trip to the U.S. and eloquently about a pandemic visit to Florence’s Uffizi with his wife to see Michelangelo’s masterpiece TONDO DONI. This is an immersive and satisfying listen. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

An intimate account of very recent history and an expansive story of a nation. Only Nesi could enfold fashion, economic theory, and literature into something so lapidary and beautiful.” —Ryan Chapman, author of Riots I Have Known

“This elegant, witty book about Italy, economics, Covid, family (most specifically, the writer’s father), is like a miracle fabric from Nesi’s hometown of Prato, woven with a critical eye to innovation, obsolescence, heartbreak, and sustainability. With a winning mix of rigor and feeling, Nesi applies Platonic questioning to economic experts, friends, and his personal memories, until past losses and the unknown present absorb us like a good novel.” —Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, author of Silence and Silences and Mother Tongue: An American Life in Italy

“This is a book about loss: of a beloved father, of the country he represented in his son’s eyes, and of a promised future of continual progress and social advancement. As Italy becomes the first European nation gripped by the pandemic, Nesi picks up his phone and calls old friends, including a leading economist, an industrialist, a screenwriter, and a wine consultant, asking them what is going to happen. Their predictions are interleaved with his own amusing and poignant reflections on work, family, and Italian culture as the world around him shifts, at least temporarily, beyond recognition.” —James Attlee, author of Under the Rainbow: Voices from Lockdown

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175679329
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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