I adore Sarah Winman's books, Tin Man was one of my favourite reads from the last 5 years so I was looking forward to Still Life. It is a sweeping story covering the lives of a group of mis-matched people who become each other's chosen family. Set across 30 years and two cities it kept me intrigued and engaged throughout and the the writing was brilliant. (Copy via Netgalley in return for an honest review)

Florence here I come.
Took a while to understand this book, but once the characters became clear it was addictive.
Lots of colorful characters, especially Claude.
Action goes between Florence and London, lots of near misses with characters, passing one another just streets away.
Who would not love kind, funny Ulysses? and sharp witted Evelyn, complex Peg, thoughtful Cress, Pete and Allys, plus lots of others. The descriptions in this book are excellent, particularly the heartbreaking flood and the devastation it causes. The laugh out loud conversations and observations. The artists and the artwork it mentions will have you looking them up.
The ending rounds the story off so well.

A beautiful and delightful book to read, one I really just wanted to spend my time reading and savoring the experience.

I loved this beautiful book, such a treat to all your senses, I immediately felt in need of an adventure

This is a book to savour. Not something you pick up to delve into while you have a spare 5 minutes.

I need to go back to Florence now though.

This was a wonderful read, I love books that follow people through the decades and the setting of WW2, the London East End & Italy was perfect.
I'm a huge fan of long sweeping books by authors such as RF Delderfield, Sarah Harrison & Louis de Bernieres and for me this book fits into this style perfectly & it is one of my top reads of 2021

Beautifully observed character-driven historical novel. Sarah Winman genuinely creates characters that you care about, and this new novel is no exception. I have never truly recovered from reading 'Tin Man', which just drained every emotion out of me, and this didn't quite create that emotional response from me. Nonetheless, a quietly powerful and moving book.

(Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

In the last few months of the Second World War an art historian and a young soldier meet by chance in Florence - she reminiscing about her time and her love of Renaissance art, he trying to survive. Over the next thirty years their lives progress but meetings are missed until finally they connect again in Florence with the shadow of EM Forster hanging over them.
This is a book with no plot or too much plot, a critic might say, but for me it was a joy from first page to last page. Remarkable coincidences, strokes of luck, tragedy, it's all here and it all works. There are great streaks of humour, Claude the parrot, love in many forms and a genuine appreciation of la Dolce Vita. It's just a wonderful read.

Simply beautiful, and one of THE books of 2021 for me. Although it took me a little while to fall under the spell of Ulysses, Peg, Evelyn, the fabulous Claude, and the wide cast of other characters, mainly due to the slightly complicated initial story arc, once I’d picked up the carefully lain threads woven through the early chapters, I couldn’t wait to discover how they were all connected and what beautiful tapestry they’d become. And it really did feel like a work of art being unfurled before the reader: intricate, nuanced, strands of golden light against dark shadows, all stitched together by the most beautiful prose. This is a book I’ll recommend for years to come.

This was an ok read, I was glad when I got to the end but not sure I would recommend this to anyone.

Sarah Winman has a very clever and subtle way of guiding the reader to use their senses to get a real feel for a place and time and letting those feelings linger on after the book has been read, creating a peaceful atmosphere within the heart and mind which in today’s climate, is an absolute tonic.
Her descriptions of life at the time the book is set in, whether in the Italian landscape or London’s East End, is beautiful, honest and real. Her characters conjure up an instant image in the mind and I feel I once knew them, if only for a moment. Such an emotional journey. This is a book to fall in love with.

Wonderful, beautiful and just utterly delightful and moving to read. I fell in love all over again with Florence and Italy. All these characters were wonderfully created and brought to life. Just Marvellous

This story is everything you ever need to know about friendship, love and loyalty. It’s so moving. A bunch of people travelling through the decades together - sometimes together, sometimes apart but that love and loyalty, always there. Two strangers meet at the beginning of the book, sometime during the war and they immediately strike up an unusual friendship. The war ends and they each go their own ways. Never to meet again possibly.
I loved the camaraderie I felt through the relationships in this book and particularly that of the old man and his parrot. This part of the story truly unique and tear jerking.
It’s definitely an unforgettable story and it just gets more beautiful and moving as it goes on until it reaches its conclusion which is a perfect ending. I absolutely loved it.

Still Life by Sarah Winman is a beautifully told story filled with wonderful characters, and it is a delight from start to finish. The book opens with an unlikely encounter between a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, and an older art historian , Evelyn Skinner in Tuscany in the last days of the second world war. The pair spend a strange evening trading stories before parting ways. Ulysses returns home after the war to find that his beloved wife has had an affair with an American GI and given birth to a daughter, Alys. In a strange twist of fate, Ulysses finds out that he has inherited a house in Florence , and so he, Alys, his friend Cress and a Shakespeare quoting parrot up sticks and move , building a unique but wonderful family. Over the decades Ulysses and Evelyn almost cross paths numerous times, but fate intervenes and it is not until the 1960's that they reconnect..
This is a beautiful and heart-warming book, every character is so vividly brought to life ,it really feels like you are getting to know them as the story unfolds. Be prepared for the whole gamut of emotions, from the thrill of first love to the devastation of loss, the security of true friendship to the bond between parent and child. Since the story unfolds over the course of forty years, the characters undergo a lot of growth and development and seeing how their stories and lives interconnect was an absolute joy.
I read a review copy courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

An epic of love, friendship and art (and the love of art) across the decades, from the east end of London to Florence and Tuscany. I was briefly unsure about this in the opening pages but quickly lost any qualms as I got wrapped up in the characters. Funny, moving, emotional, occasionally rather harrowing but ultimately uplifting, I felt genuinely bereft at the end without being able to continue the journey.
Perfect summer read.

A group of eclectic and colourful East End characters (mainly), including a larger-than-life parrot, who become a family of sorts over the course of decades. The city of Florence and its artwork feature heavily in the story - as a non-arty person this was of little interest to me - and I thought the relationship viz friendship between Ulysses and Evelyn - two very incongruous characters in my opinion - hard to understand. I loved Cressy, but most of the other characters I cared little about. It was a curious book, one I really didn’t warm to.

Still Life is unusual, it's beautiful, life affirming, and a wonderful testament to human connection.

Spanning decades, it tells the story of Evelyn Skinner, a tour de force of a woman. Unapologetic, kind, bursting with compassion and a woman who embraces art, life and love. In 1944 she meets a soldier, Ulysses and their lives are one day to entwine again.

At the heart of the story is Florence, a city that becomes Ulysses' home. With a cast of characters who love and support one another through trials and tribulations, this is a book with feel good at its core.

In the closing chapters of her life, Evelyn finds Ulysses once more and she celebrates her 99th birthday surrounded by love.

This is a book to be savoured and one that will fill the readers heart with joy.

when god was a rabbit is one of my all time favourite books and i've been waiting for another one of sarah winman's to live up to that in my heart and this one does it!!!

i had no idea what to expect going into this apart from some ww2, some art and a lot of italy and i got all of that and so much more

following ulysses and evelyn, two very different people who meet in florence during the second world war, it follows both their lives in the aftermath and through the latter half of the 2oth century.

there are so many lovely characters who are so funny and real and heartwarming, i absolutely loved the pub and its family, from claude to peggy to ginny, as well as evelyn and her friend dotty.

the descriptions of london and then florence are beautiful and of course it made me want to move to florence immediately. like with god was a rabbit i loved the way world events were sewn into the narrative, the characers adapting and changing around them, from huge floods to sports bets and everything in between

it's just a lovely story about a lovely group of people and i really recommend it

A story that burrows deep into your heart with colourful characters ( and a parrot) that live and develop with the story. A fleeting encounter during the intensity of war becomes a lifelong obsession which shadows much of the story and the city of Florence becomes a living entity. Most of the action takes place there with forays back and forth to the East End. English men in Italy gradually go native as the Italian psyche seeps into their souls and the contrast is striking! The importance of art is central to the novel- from raucous bar sing a longs to opera, from italian art history to intricate woodwork but in the end it is relationships that matter and sustain the story until the conclusion.. Well worth persevering with the unconventional style which soon becomes the norm- I didn't want it to end and rationed the second half to make it last longer!

Lots to love in this beautifully set tale, woven over decades and showing ultimately found family and love. The descriptions of people, place and food were rich and pulled you into the story. I found the lack of speech marks jarring and the final part where we returned to Evelyn’s youth seemed out of place and overlong. However, no one can dispute the beautiful writing in this quiet story.