Book description
A newly translated collection of fiction by the influential Italian modernist, continuing on his landmark work Zeno's Conscience.
A Very Old Man collects five linked stories, parts of an unfinished novel that the great Triestine Italo Svevo wrote at the end of his life, after the international success of Zeno’s…
Why read it?
1 author picked A Very Old Man as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Stories of the small adventures and ruminations of a wealthy old man in Trieste may not sound that gripping. But our protagonist, Zeno Cosini, is a really compelling and funny portrait of pedantic self-absorption.
The book has qualities akin to Diary of a Nobody, though Zeno’s world is far more elevated than Charles Pooter. This was the author’s last book and is unfinished but with this new translation, by Frederika Randall, it’s a charming classic.
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