Still Life – Sarah Winman

The book-packing journey arrives in Italy at the back end of the Second World War.

Outside Florence, Private Ulysses Temper (Temps to his friends) and Captain Darnley have a brief encounter with 64-year-old Evelyn Skinner, who is assisting the Allies locate and identify looted art. Darnley won’t survive the war, but Temps will, despite numerous wounds and a dangerous impulsive rescue of an old man (Arturo) from his roof high above a Florence square.

Demobbed back in London, he finds his wife Peggy has had an affair with a long gone American GI and is with child. They remain amicable and Temps bonds with ‘the kid’, settling into a desultory life with mates Cressy, Piano Pete, Col, and Claude - Col is landlord of the Stoat and Parrot, of which Claude is the garrulous parrot.

Nine years on from the war, word arrives from Florence that Arturo has died and left his apartment to the soldier who rescued him. Temps ups sticks, and sets off to Italy to accept his inheritance, accompanied by the kid, mate Cressy, and Claude the parrot. Cressy has cash from an outrageous bet to invest and they develop the property into a pension for visiting tourists.

The narrative meanders down the next twenty-five years, set mainly in Florence with interludes in London with Peggy and Col, who now and then visit Florence. Meanwhile, Evelyn’s life goes forward in parallel, occasionally brushing up with the other characters without making a connection; her back story emerges. Personal dramas unfold, a highlight being the cataclysmic flood of Florence in 1966.

Descriptions of Florence and its art abound, giving a strong sense of place. The characters are endearing (save the parrot), and their relationships well drawn. Spending time with them makes for pleasant enough reading.