Wandering through Life: A Memoir
(By Donna Leon)
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| Author | Donna Leon |
internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her
own adventurous life story as she enters her eighties
In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna
Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than
been planned.
Following a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with
frequent visits to her grandfather’s farm and its beloved animals, and summers
spent selling homegrown tomatoes by the roadside, Leon got her first taste of
the classical music and opera that would enrich her life. She also developed a
yen for adventure. In 1976, she made the spontaneous decision to teach English
in Iran, before finding herself swept up in the early days of the 1979
Revolution. After teaching stints in China and Saudi Arabia, she finally landed
in Venice. Leon vividly animates her decades-long love affair with Italy, from
her first magical dinner when serving as a chaperone to a friend, to the hunt
for the perfect cappuccino, to the warfare tactics of grandmothers doing their
grocery shopping at the Rialto Market. Some things remain constant throughout
the decades: her adoration of opera, especially Handel’s vocal music, her
advocacy for the environment, embodied in her passion for bees—which informs
the surprising crux of the Brunetti mystery in Earthly Remains. Yet
as Leon inspects the cracks in the wall of a friend’s bedroom, caused by vibrations
from the seven-story cruise ships making their way down Venice’s canals, she
admits regretfully that mass tourism has rendered the city less and less
appealing to its longtime chronicler.
Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon poignantly
confronts the challenges of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading
those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with
music, food, and her fierce sense of humor, Wandering through Life
offers Donna Leon at her most personal. ”
