“A beautiful paean to Rome, a passionately rendered love letter that will appeal to anyone interested in the Eternal City.” 

—BOSTON GLOBE

On the same day that Anthony Doerr’s wife gave birth to newborn twins, Doerr learned he’d won the Rome Prize, a chance to spend a year at the American Academy in Rome, all expenses paid. Four Seasons in Rome describes Doerr’s subsequent year in the eternal city, reading Pliny the Elder, visits the piazzas, temples and churches of Rome, attending the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II, trying (and failing) to write the novel that would eventually become All the Light We Cannot See, and raising twin babies. “To call this a travel book,” said Kirkus Reviews, “is to sell it short: it is delightful, funny and full of memorable scenes. Don’t leave for Rome without it.”

“This exquisite little book is filled with the pleasure of travel, the way in which the most ordinary activity can become new and fresh, even something so simple as buying bread, a rejuvenation of the spirit that becomes possible every day.”
—New Orleans Times-Picayune

“It’s a tribute to wonder itself.”
—The Oregonian

“There are so many aphoristic jewels, so much poetry in here…”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Doerr’s journal is a love letter written with the ear of a musician, the sensibility of a Buddha, the heart of an inamorato. Rome is the chosen beloved, but Doerr’s true subject is writing.”
—sandra Cisernos

“This is a wonderful book: it’s funny, insightful, tender, and wise.”
—Booksense

“That Doerr sees so acutely in our ‘astoundingly, intricately, breathtaking beautiful world’ makes it all the more happy a thing that he creates, on the printed page, beauty of his own.”
—Bookslut

“This book, like a long trip through a warm Italian night, is richly rewarding and well worth the effort.”
—Seattle Times