Absolutely loved this. One of those books you realise early on is going to be a five star book, and one that I read slowly in order to savour it. 

The story stretches from the second world war up to, I think, the 1970s, and it’s basically a family saga, but most of the cast are friends rather than actual relations. There’s a strong sense of place in the book with most of the story happening around Florence with the London background of most of the characters also playing its part. Really great characters who, I’m pretty sure, are going to stick around in my head for a while. And the writing style is one of those that you initially think might get on your nerves but I got into the flow of it and loved it. 

Part of me thought maybe the ending and the last section of the book were a bit weaker than what had gone before but on the whole I think it’s a book that didn’t need to spell everything out and not the kind of story where you are going to see everything that happens to every character in it. Really good and I’ll pretty certain I’ll be reading more from Sarah Winman soon.