Journey to the World of the Black Rooster: A Memoir - Paperback

by Beth Archer Brombert (Author)

Description: JOURNEY TO THE WORLD OF THE BLACK ROOSTER tells the story of a twenty-year-old graduate student in French literature who longed to go to Paris, but her fiancé's Fulbright fellowship sent them to Rome -- where she had no wish to be -- for their first year of marriage. That was the beginning of a half-century love affair with Italy, and more specifically, with Tuscany, where the Bromberts lived for long periods and to which they return every summer. JOURNEY TO THE WORLD OF THE BLACK ROOSTER is a love story in which the author weaves the story of her marriage, the story of her coming to love Italy, and the story of Italians coming to love her, into a vivid text that moves between past and present, America and Europe. The pages are alive with people whose speech is recorded with a novelist's ear and an anthropologist's precision, whose humor and misfortunes give the book the kind of three-dimensionality rarely encountered in a work of non-fiction. Tuscany becomes a character in its own right, beautifully observed and flawlessly represented. This original memoir, a blend of tenderness and objectivity, is a journey of discovery that suggests how multiple affinities can enrich a life, and how identity does not have to be limited to one's place of birth. For anyone who has ever traveled to Italy, or dreamed of going there, JOURNEY TO THE WORLD OF THE BLACK ROOSTER provides an intimate experience of the language, customs, history and food of the country. As the author explains in this nostalgic memoir, the world of the black rooster is more than a place; it is a state of mind where one learns what really matters, and where one faces the passage of time with a smile and a shrug.

Author Biography

Biography: Beth Archer Brombert's introduction to Italy was made during a year's residence when she learned Italian at the Università per Stranieri and took courses at the University of Rome. She spent many years living in Florence and continues to spend every summer in Chianti. She is the author of two acclaimed biographies: Cristina, Portraits of a princess, and Edouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat which received a front-page review in the New York Times, was listed in Notable Books of the Year, and has recently appeared in French. Other works include a novel, A Concert of Hells, numerous pieces on regions of Italy for the travel section of the New York Times and other travel magazines, and many translations from French and Italian literature.