NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile
An ensemble of narrators presents this novel featuring Marco Carrera, the metaphorical hummingbird who hovers in place in a changing world. He’s an ophthalmologist who faces adversity and tragedy in all aspects of his life: in his romantic pursuits, in his care for and loss of family members, and in his friendships. Portraying Marco, Victor Vertunni provides British-accented speech and a tone of gravitas. His pace is largely unhurried as he jumps back and forth in time as Marco, the everyman, contends with all that life throws at him. Silvia Presente and Kristin Atherton seriously deliver their parts of the story, including dialogue that helps develop the secondary characters' personalities. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 10/18/2021
A 40-year-old ophthalmologist becomes enmeshed in a morass of family troubles and careless decisions in Veronesi’s Strega Prize–winning latest (after Quiet Chaos). In Rome at the brink of the new millennium, Marco Carrera, known by his childhood nickname “the hummingbird” for his diminutive stature, is having an affair while his wife does the same. His parents were glaringly mismatched, and his siblings, one of whom died many years earlier, are depicted through the nonlinear narrative as depressed, suicidal, or just plain estranged. Rather than marrying Luisa, Marco’s longtime love, he had opted for Marina, a flight attendant he first sees on a TV news program, during which she describes how she’d narrowly avoided a shift on an ill-fated flight. They have a daughter, but Marco endures years of disappointments and Marina’s adulterous betrayals. Meanwhile, he’s secretly struck up a correspondence with Luisa. A chaotic black comedy of blunders ensues as the narrative volleys back and forth between Carrera’s youth and the present through dashes of poetry, emails, postcards, and dialogue, while running commentary from an omnipresent third-person chimes in with penetrating insight (on relationships: “It should be common knowledge—and yet it isn’t—that the course of every new relationship is set from the start, once and for all, every time”). Cleverly structured like a jigsaw puzzle, the story’s disparate pieces are overlaid and slowly developed, such as the details of Marco’s sister’s death. A senseless tragedy, splashes of levity, and unexpected poignancy bring this to a moving conclusion. Veronesi’s dark modern chronicle shimmers with intelligence and flashes of pathos. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"The Hummingbird is a masterly novel, a brilliantly conceived mosaic of love and tragedy. Veronesi creates a thought-rich and ultimately comic meditation on human error and lost chances.It’s a cabinet of curiosities and delights, packed with small wonders, strange and sudden turns, insights of great poise and unusual cultural reference points. The Hummingbird in an object lesson in authorial control. Veronesi truly knows and loves all matters of the heart." — Ian McEwan
“I love Sandro Veronesi’s book, The Hummingbird. A real masterpiece. A funny, touching, profound book that made me cry like a little girl on the last page.” — Leïla Slimani, author of The Perfect Nanny
"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 . . . magnificent—moving, replete, beautiful." — The Guardian
“How do you begin telling the story of a great love when you know it ended in disaster?” this novel asks. . . . The temporal leaps, though sometimes disorienting, cunningly mimic the eddying, insistent nature of memory itself.” — The New Yorker
"Somehow or other Sandro Veronesi pulls off the extraordinary feat of making you believe he is writing for your ears alone. I cannot tell you what The Hummingbird is about because that would be to betray a confidence. But I can tell you it's a mightily clever novel." — Howard Jacobson, Winner of the Booker Prize
“Veronesi draws a sumptuous portrait of a character whose failings are his biggest charm and who wrestles with sibling and parental issues like most of us… A moving reminder that even the most ordinary lives are peppered with touches of the extraordinary." — Booklist (starred review)
“Cleverly structured like a jigsaw puzzle … Veronesi’s dark modern chronicle shimmers with intelligence and flashes of pathos.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"I have known for quite some time that Sandro Veronesi was one of the most skillful and profound Italian storytellers of the past thirty years. But The Hummingbird is the decisive proof of his sensitivity, of his extraordinary strength as a writer." — Domenico Starnone, National Book Award Finalist
"A great novel, vibrating with life and death, happiness and pain, nostalgia and hope for the future." — Vanity Fair
"Reading The Hummingbird is not just a moving experience: it's almost like a therapy session, a lesson in persevering, in letting go of guilt to find ourselves again." — Huffington Post
"Outstanding. A perturbing masterpiece. Absolute beauty in the smallest detail." — Corriere della Serra
"No other writer in Italy today can tell a story like Sandro Veronesi." — La Stampa
"Powerful and seductive." — La Repubblica
"Instantly immersive, playfully inventive, effortlessly wise... a family saga that pays homage to the quiet heroism required by day-to-day existence." — The Observer (London)
"Sandro Veronesi is a big name in European literature ... Veronesi originally trained as an architect and, rather marvelously, it shows: the structure is inventive, bold, unexpected - slightly bonkers but elegant, and cohesive ... [it] conveys life’s messy unpredictability: joy and desperation, simple pleasures, moments of transcendence, much reeling and confusion ... 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." — Sunday Times (London)
"A masterpiece of articulation ... a towering achievement ... 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. Veronesi explores, with great humor, how the passage of time both expands and expunges the impact of events. And, he suggests, after the pounding of years it is only an individual's character that determines whether or not the edifice will hold." — Financial Times
"Veronesi has penned a powerful Shakespearean tale of one man’s life, filled with tragedy, loss, and star-crossed love." — Library Journal
“Jumping through time and unfolding through poetry, emails, postcards, and dialogue, the story is a celebration of hope and optimism in the face of terrible tragedy” — Harper’s Bazaar
“The Hummingbird is a moving, black-humored work about family and the tragedies born of time and poor decisions. Veronesi has created complicated characters that don’t always behave nobly, are products of their time and are, from a literary standpoint, the richer for it.” — BookPage
“…Mr. Veronesi is an expert at playing on the reader’s deepest fears and hopes in emotionally involving ways” — Wall Street Journal
Corriere della Serra
"Outstanding. A perturbing masterpiece. Absolute beauty in the smallest detail."
La Stampa
"No other writer in Italy today can tell a story like Sandro Veronesi."
Domenico Starnone
"I have known for quite some time that Sandro Veronesi was one of the most skillful and profound Italian storytellers of the past thirty years. But The Hummingbird is the decisive proof of his sensitivity, of his extraordinary strength as a writer."
The Guardian
"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 ... magnificent – moving, replete, beautiful."
Huffington Post
"Reading The Hummingbird is not just a moving experience: it's almost like a therapy session, a lesson in persevering, in letting go of guilt to find ourselves again."
Ian McEwan
"The Hummingbird is a masterly novel, a brilliantly conceived mosaic of love and tragedy. Veronesi creates a thought-rich and ultimately comic meditation on human error and lost chances. It’s a cabinet of curiosities and delights, packed with small wonders, strange and sudden turns, insights of great poise and unusual cultural reference points. The Hummingbird in an object lesson in authorial control. Veronesi truly knows and loves all matters of the heart."
Howard Jacobson
"Somehow or other Sandro Veronesi pulls off the extraordinary feat of making you believe he is writing for your ears alone. I cannot tell you what The Hummingbird is about because that would be to betray a confidence. But I can tell you it's a mightily clever novel."
La Repubblica
"Powerful and seductive."
The Observer (London)
"Instantly immersive, playfully inventive, effortlessly wise... a family saga that pays homage to the quiet heroism required by day-to-day existence."
Vanity Fair
"A great novel, vibrating with life and death, happiness and pain, nostalgia and hope for the future."
Sunday Times (London)
"Sandro Veronesi is a big name in European literature ... Veronesi originally trained as an architect and, rather marvelously, it shows: the structure is inventive, bold, unexpected - slightly bonkers but elegant, and cohesive ... [it] conveys life’s messy unpredictability: joy and desperation, simple pleasures, moments of transcendence, much reeling and confusion ... 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."
Leila Slimani
I love Sandro Veronesi’s book, The Hummingbird. A real masterpiece. A funny, touching, profound book that made me cry like a little girl on the last page.
Financial Times
"A masterpiece of articulation ... a towering achievement ... 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. Veronesi explores, with great humor, how the passage of time both expands and expunges the impact of events. And, he suggests, after the pounding of years it is only an individual's character that determines whether or not the edifice will hold."
Financial Times
"A masterpiece of articulation ... a towering achievement ... 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. Veronesi explores, with great humor, how the passage of time both expands and expunges the impact of events. And, he suggests, after the pounding of years it is only an individual's character that determines whether or not the edifice will hold."
Library Journal
12/01/2021
A second Premio Strega winner (also named Best Book of the Year by Corriere della Sera, among Italy's oldest newspapers), from Veronesi (Quiet Chaos), one of Italy's most beloved authors. For his whole life, Italian ophthalmologist Marco Carerra has had two passions: his belief in the importance of family and his lifelong, albeit chaste, love for Luisa. His story, told in a fluid patchwork of narratives, letters, texts, emails, and transcribed phone calls that move back and forth in time, follows his childhood as he remains oblivious of his parents' miserable marriage, to his teen years as a gifted athlete on high alert over the safety of his deeply troubled older sister, to a young adulthood marked by his successful gamble on his own challenging marriage to Marina and his devotion to their daughter, Adele. All these pieces are on a steady collision course that challenges Marco's frantic efforts to keep whole all that he cherishes the most. VERDICT Veronesi has penned a powerful Shakespearean tale of one man's life, filled with tragedy, loss, and star-crossed love. A cautionary tale for our turbulent times, exquisitely rendered by translator Pala; Veronesi's final chapter is sure to garner much examination as a prescient warning of what may lie ahead.—Beth Andersen, formerly at Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile
An ensemble of narrators presents this novel featuring Marco Carrera, the metaphorical hummingbird who hovers in place in a changing world. He’s an ophthalmologist who faces adversity and tragedy in all aspects of his life: in his romantic pursuits, in his care for and loss of family members, and in his friendships. Portraying Marco, Victor Vertunni provides British-accented speech and a tone of gravitas. His pace is largely unhurried as he jumps back and forth in time as Marco, the everyman, contends with all that life throws at him. Silvia Presente and Kristin Atherton seriously deliver their parts of the story, including dialogue that helps develop the secondary characters' personalities. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2021-10-27
One man’s life story, told in nonchronological fragments.
This sprawling novel encompasses the life of Marco Carrera from early childhood to old age. Celebrated Italian novelist Veronesi skips backward and forward through the timeline of his protagonist’s life, deploying not only traditional third-person prose, but also letters, dialogue, and even an academic talk to tell his story. The bulk of the novel is dedicated to Marco’s relationships with the women in his life. As a young man in Florence, Marco falls in love with his neighbor Luisa, with whom his brother is also infatuated; as an adult, he carries on a platonic affair with her that fractures his marriage. He remains close, however, to his daughter, Adele, whose childhood attachment to him manifests as a fantasy that she has a thread attached to her back. Later, he grows even closer to his granddaughter, Miraijin, who winds up becoming a famous activist. Veronesi’s unconventional narrative approach is, at first, beguiling. As the book progresses, however, the author's troubling depictions of women detract from his novel’s strengths. We find out that Marco fell in love with Luisa when she was 13 and he was 20, a detail the novel fails to acknowledge. Meanwhilie, Marco’s “clinically insane” wife, Marina, brings a petition of divorce against him that includes false allegations of abuse when she finds out about his relationship with Luisa. The novel’s greatest failure, though, is Miraijin, whom Veronesi describes in uncomfortably sexual terms and as “the literal embodiment of the utopian ideals of multiculturalism.” Unsurprisingly, she never feels like a real person.
An intriguing but ultimately disappointing experiment in fictional biography.
