Review by Booklist Review
Part Eat Pray Love, part Heartburn, part family saga, Giacco's debut novel takes readers on a luscious journey rich in description and emotional resonance. Visual artist Emilia takes a solo trip to Rome originally meant for two, and through the duration of her stay mourns her lost relationship and revisits the foundational ones with her family, namely, her famous musician father whose shadow has loomed over her life. When she meets a man, an American expat with a tragedy in his past, she must decide for herself to remain among the ruins or to build something new and beautiful around them. Amidst the sort of immersive observations of everyday Roman life only an outsider would express and accounts of meals that will make readers' mouths water, Giacco subtly considers what we allow other people to know about us, what is lost in translation, and how, like the novel's titular city, we can reinvent ourselves after a fall. Readers will want to linger in this world created by a promising new writer.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Giacco's sensual and deliberately paced debut, an American artist in her early 30s takes a transformative trip to Rome. After getting out of a relationship with a married man, Emilia turns the Roman vacation they had planned together into a solo trip, wandering the city and reflecting on the breakup and her memories of growing up as the daughter of a famous rock singer. Emilia begins an affair with a charming American ex-pat, whose thoughtful conversation helps her to see the toll that her father's passions and celebrity exacted on her family throughout her childhood. Giacco revels in her setting, providing rich descriptions of the streets, food, and people Emilia encounters ("Butter-yellow buildings, with their faded blue windows.... Around a nondescript corner, a gorgeous slap in the face"), but much of the narrative takes place inside Emilia's head as she forges an identity independent of her father and her ex. Indeed, the author's discursive style and the inconclusive ending will frustrate readers looking for an immersive narrative. Though slow moving, this is sumptuously written. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Mourning the end of a relationship by taking--alone--the birthday-celebration vacation booked when she was part of a couple, a 30-something woman reaches a turning point. In her discursive debut, Giacco introduces a self-absorbed central character whose musings and interactions during the eponymous period are offered as a life-changing pivot. Emilia has arrived in the Eternal City still under the shadow of her "past-tense love," following the plans she and Michael had made before he revealed, after a year and a half together, that he had been married all along and now wants to give the marriage another go. Emilia believed she loved Michael but also comments: "The longer I was with him, the more uncertain I became, transforming myself accordingly. I adopted so much of what he loved and hated and rejected and valued, became some version of myself that existed in relation to him." Now liberated from this self-subordination, she is free to wander the streets indulgently, thinking about herself, her family, her memories, her time with Michael, and her impressions of Rome (heavy on the booze, fountains, churches, olives, espressos, and pizza). Planning a picnic in a park, she bumps into attractive American architect John and quickly finds distraction from her romantic past with a new romantic present. But John has a larger function than mere lover. He asks questions about Emilia's father--a famous singer/songwriter who of course has influenced his daughter's attitude toward men. This burrowing will lead Emilia to acknowledgements--"You never took me seriously, I never even had a chance" (addressed both to Michael and to her father)--and new possibilities. Giacco's slender, elegant, yet detached story assumes engagements with privileged Emilia and her point of view, yet those connections may be less than certain in a tale that seems more glossy than groundbreaking. Upscale escapism as beautiful people in a sensuous city bare and share. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
