The Temptation to Be Happy - Softcover

Lorenzo Marone was born in 1974. Originally trained as a lawyer, he gave up his career to follow his passion for writing. His first novel, The Temptation to Be Happy, is a major bestseller in Italy. It has been translated into fifteen languages and was used as the inspiration for a film released in Italy in April 2017. Lorenzo Marone lives in Naples with his wife and son. Shaun Whiteside's translations from Italian include books by Tiziano Scarpa, Paolo Giordano, Melissa Panarello and Luther Blissett/Wu Ming Collective. He lives in London.

`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 * `An impressive literary feat...a charming tale of opportunities taken and missed.' * Reading Magazine * `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 * `Poignant...[with] moments of touching eccentricity.' * bookoxygen * `Lorenzo Marone is the new voice that literature needs.' * Corriere della Sera * `A wonderful novel about ageing - ironic and light-footed.' * Italien Magazin * `A toast to real happiness!' * La Stampa * `A book that touches the heart...wonderfully honest, ingenious, quick and tragic.' * Siegener Zeitung * `Unforgettable...comical and cynical while remaining tender and dramatic.' * Corriere della Sera * `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 *