Following the critical and commercial success of A Literary Tour of Italy, acclaimed novelist Tim Parks presents a new selection of his latest essays on Italian literature, offering a lively, accessible and stimulating diorama of the cultural landscape of Italy. Containing pieces on major figures such as Dante, Machiavelli, Leopardi and Manzoni, as well as articles on some of Italys best-known modern authors from Pirandello and Pavese to Pasolini, Levi and Calvino, through to more recent writers such as Camilleri, Saviano and Ferrante this book will delight and interest any lover of Italian culture, and confirms Tim Parks as one of the finest and most perceptive essay writers of his generation.