According to Booklist: In this thoroughly warm, witty, entertaining, and character-driven novel spanning decades, Winman shares bighearted ideas about friendship, love, art, and community. On a fateful night during WWII, young soldier Ulysses meets Evelyn, a sixty-something art historian arrived in Italy to salvage paintings. They are absolutely lovestruck—platonically, as Ulysses is in love with Peg and Evelyn is a lesbian. From that night, their lives will circle around each other and take unexpected turns that lead both Brits to Florence after the war. It is there that the utterly charming Ulysses will find his people, while being surrounded by history, art, and food (all richly and lovingly described). While Still Life is slim on plot and heavy on coincidence, it is hard to envision a reader who won't be smitten by Winman's characters and their banter, like old Cressy, who takes advice from a tree, and Claude, the blue parrot who may be Shakespeare reincarnated. These lives may not be the stuff of legend, but they are still life.
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