Sentimental Economy

“A beautiful and heartbreaking account…It’s not easy to stitch economics and emotions together on the page, but the author accomplishes it with aplomb. Haunting and lovely: Readers will eagerly join Nesi in his remembrances.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“An intimate account of very recent history and an expansive story of a nation. Only Nesi could enfold fashion, economic theory, and literature into something so lapidary and beautiful.” —Ryan Chapman, author of Riots I Have Known

“This elegant, witty book about Italy, economics, Covid, family (most specifically, the writer’s father), is like a miracle fabric from Nesi’s hometown of Prato, woven with a critical eye to innovation, obsolescence, heartbreak, and sustainability. With a winning mix of rigor and feeling, Nesi applies Platonic questioning to economic experts, friends, and his personal memories, until past losses and the unknown present absorb us like a good novel.” —Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, author of Silence and Silences and Mother Tongue: An American Life in Italy

“This is a book about loss: of a beloved father, of the country he represented in his son’s eyes, and of a promised future of continual progress and social advancement. As Italy becomes the first European nation gripped by the pandemic, Nesi picks up his phone and calls old friends, including a leading economist, an industrialist, a screenwriter, and a wine consultant, asking them what is going to happen. Their predictions are interleaved with his own amusing and poignant reflections on work, family, and Italian culture as the world around him shifts, at least temporarily, beyond recognition.” —James Attlee, author of Under the Rainbow: Voices from Lockdown