The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy

Review A rich meditation: on separation, on possession, on Renaissance artists, and, inevitably, on the transformative nature of travel. ― The Times Whether considering language, food or national habits, she has an amazing ability to strike at the heart of things, to look afresh and not overlook. ― Guardian [Cusk] examines the whole notion of travel, investigates the consolations of art in an increasingly disfigured world, and writes about food and landscape in prose that constantly reminds us what language can do. ― TLS Books of the Year Enthusiastic, curious and observant . . . Cusk is a natural and gifted writer from whom dazzling descriptions, analyses, metaphors and similes gush forth in rich profusion . . . Delightful and perceptive. ― Daily Telegraph A writer of almost electrifying intensity . . . This book is a ray of intricate sunlight. ― Irish Times Cusk . . . brings to her three-month sojourn in Italy a characteristic strangeness and charm . . . She transfigures the drab, daily round of school runs and squabbling toddlers into an exalted, terrible realm . . . A fine, exultant book. ― Observer Absorbing . . . This brief memoir, like Cusk's fiction, has real edge and distinction. ― Evening Standard The long cadences of her prose are beautiful . . . It is the human encounters, the occasional shrewd observation and the physical descriptions of the places and moments both humdrum and picturesque that linger in the mind. ― Literary Review Thoughtful, precise, attentive to detail . . . Her description of Naples is perfectly evocative of the city, whose extremes are captured in brilliant snapshots. ― Sunday Telegraph Bracing and rigorous . . . Cusk makes Italy sing. ― Scotland on Sunday While many travelogues set in Italy bask in a reverent mellow glow, Cusk's memoir is refreshingly realistic. She infuses the details of daily routine with wry humour and her singular world view. She has an artists's eye for beauty and a philosopher's desire for truth . . . More than anything else in this gem of a book, she shares her love of art. ― Sunday Business Post Cusk's brilliance at describing landscape, the "art in daily things", Italian cuisine and a series of vicious games of tennis is part of what makes her worth reading, though she is equally interesting on painters . . . All her work radiates a fine intelligence and the writer's equivalent to an exquisite singing voice. The Last Supper is written with characteristic wit, courage and curiosity. ― Independent on Sunday A nuanced and moving account of the tensions of not quite belonging, and the complexities involved in shredding old selves and acquiring new ones. ― Times Literary Supplement Product Description When Rachel Cusk decides to travel to Italy for a summer with her husband and two young children, she has no idea of the trials and wonders that lie in store. Their journey leads them to both the expected and the surprising, all seen through Cusk's sharp and humane perspective. Book Description A paperback edition of The Last Supper in a stunning new look. From the Back Cover When Rachel Cusk decides to travel to Italy for a summer with her husband and two young children, she has no idea of the trials and wonders that lie in store. Their journey leads them to both the expected and the surprising, all seen through Cusk's sharp and humane perspective. About the Author Rachel Cusk is the author of the Outline trilogy, the memoirs A Life's Work and Aftermath, and several other works of fiction and non-fiction. She is a Guggenheim fellow. She lives in Paris.