Wandering through Life by Donna Leon

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, Leon has always been open to 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 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—and her eager imagination
for crime as she watches unsuspecting travelers on trains. Yet as Leon inspects
the cracks in the wall of a friend’s bedroom, caused by the seven-story cruise
ships on Venice’s canals, she admits regretfully that the thrill may be gone as
mass tourism renders the city less and less appealing to its longtime chronicler.
Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon also confronts the
dual challenges and pleasures 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.

DONNA LEON, born in New
Jersey in 1942, has worked as a
travel guide in Rome and as a
copywriter in London. She taught
literature in universities in Iran,
China, and Saudi Arabia.
Commissario Brunetti made her
books world-famous. Donna Leon lived in Italy for
many years, and although she now lives in
Switzerland, she often visits Venice.

$26.00 (Canada: $35.00)
5.5 x 8.25, 208 pp.
Memoir (BIO026000)
978-0-8021-6158-1
eISBN: 978-0-8021-6159-8
U.S. and Canadian rights:
Atlantic Monthly Press