A Month in Siena

Praise

“As exquisitely structured as The Return, driven by desire, yearning, loss, illuminated by the kindness of strangers . . . A Month in Siena is a triumph.”—Peter Carey

“Exact and graceful . . . A Month in Siena gives us [Hisham] Matar turning his intense gaze on another landscape entirely. . . . It is arguing for the power of art to answer a longing to be ‘recognized,’ while bringing about the rediscovery of ‘our own powers of remembrance,’ a pastime that demands the closest possible attention.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Matar is a master of pellucid statement that seems simple yet is exactly right. . . . He is equally eloquent about the paintings he loves. . . . This is an exquisite, deeply affecting book, one in which an experience of dislocation and loss is conveyed in prose that flows so clearly and gracefully it finds continuities and connections all the time.”—Evening Standard

“A sweet, short mediation on art, grief, and life . . . A Month in Siena is a brilliant miniature, a fugue but also a release. Its intellectual and emotional depth is never forced, never exclusive. Concerning grief as much as art, it is a considered attempt to explain both, while allowing that nothing can be contained fully within a single book, painting, city, or life.”—The Arts Desk

“Through meditations on mortality, loss, government, cruelty, the Black Death, the inclusive camaraderie of the Palio and Siena’s marketplace, Matar shares moments of refreshing solitude.”—BBC

“[A Month in Siena] tells us much about the extraordinary power of art to inspire. . . . But this book is about so much more than the medieval art of Siena.”—Literary Review

“An exquisite reflection on the intersection of life and art.”—RTÉ

“A quiet meditation on art and life . . . [a] thoughtful, sensitive extended essay about [Matar’s] visit to Siena, where he ruminates and reflects on paintings, faith, love, and his wife, Diana . . . a beautifully written, pensive, and restorative memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews