The Temptation to Be Happy

Reviews / Votes

'Sad, funny, wise and unblinkingly honest, this is truly wonderful.' * Daily Mail * '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.' * New York Times Book Review * 'Immensely charming... Uplifting and very much on the side of life.' * Mail on Sunday * 'Marone's characters, irreverent and absurd, embark on adventures they had ceased to allow themselves to imagine in this darkly comedic take on ageing.' * World Literature Today * 'An impressive literary feat...a charming tale of opportunities taken and missed.' * Reading Magazine * 'Lorenzo Marone is the new voice that literature needs.' * Corriere della Sera * 'Unforgettable...comical and cynical while remaining tender and dramatic.' * Corriere della Sera * '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.' * TripFiction * 'Poignant...[with] moments of touching eccentricity.' * bookoxygen * 'A wonderful novel about ageing - ironic and light-footed.' * Italien Magazin * 'Packed with dark humour, the writer's embodiment of a near-octogenarian is an impressive feat.' * Northern Echo * 'A charming tale.' * Daily Telegraph * 'A toast to real happiness!' * La Stampa * 'A book that touches the heart...wonderfully honest, ingenious, quick and tragic.' * Siegener Zeitung * '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.' * Il Mattino * 'Comic, ironic, sarcastic descriptions that will make you smile but will also make you take a deep look at life in old age.' * Wochenspiegel *