The Temptation to Be Happy

Reviews / Votes

'Sad, funny, wise and unblinkingly honest, this is truly wonderful.' * <i>Daily Mail</i> * 'Uh-oh, here comes another one of those colourful curmudgeons who drop pearls of senior wisdom on their way to a new lease on life. Cesare certainly fits the stereotype, but he's funny, interesting and grumpy enough to stay on the winning side of the formula.' * <i>New York Times Book Review</i> * 'Immensely charming... Uplifting and very much on the side of life.' * <i>Mail on Sunday</i> * 'Marone's characters, irreverent and absurd, embark on adventures they had ceased to allow themselves to imagine in this darkly comedic take on ageing.' * <i>World Literature Today</i> * 'An impressive literary feat...a charming tale of opportunities taken and missed.' * <i>Reading Magazine</i> * 'Lorenzo Marone is the new voice that literature needs.' * <i>Corriere della Sera</i> * 'Unforgettable...comical and cynical while remaining tender and dramatic.' * <i>Corriere della Sera</i> * 'The Temptation to be Happy is that very rare thing - a book that can make you both laugh and cry... Marone's undoubted skill [is] demonstrated in some beautiful lyrical passages.' * <i>TripFiction</i> * 'Poignant...[with] moments of touching eccentricity.' * <i>bookoxygen</i> * 'A wonderful novel about ageing - ironic and light-footed.' * <i>Italien Magazin</i> * 'Packed with dark humour, the writer's embodiment of a near-octogenarian is an impressive feat.' * <i>Northern Echo</i> * 'A charming tale.' * <i>Daily Telegraph</i> * 'A toast to real happiness!' * <i>La Stampa</i> * 'A book that touches the heart...wonderfully honest, ingenious, quick and tragic.' * <i>Siegener Zeitung</i> * 'This novel owes its success largely to Lorenzo Marone's wonderful character Cesare Annunziata, and to the funny and paradoxical fact that this is an excellent coming-of-age novel whose protagonist is over seventy years old.' * <i>Il Mattino</i> * 'Comic, ironic, sarcastic descriptions that will make you smile but will also make you take a deep look at life in old age.' * <i>Wochenspiegel</i> *