Play Audiobook Sample
The Year of Our Love: A Novel Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
An extraordinary story of friendship and love across class lines, this rich, evocative novel traces the history of modern Italy, from 1975 to 2013, through the fate of one couple.
Valerio and Olivia grow up together in the Morganti family’s opulent villa in Bologna, inseparable friends even though they come from vastly different worlds: Olivia, the Morgantis’ daughter, is the heir to a large industrial fortune, while Valerio is the son of their gardener and maid. Largely sheltered from the dangers rampant in the unstable Italy of the 1970s, the two share their first innocent kiss at five years old, which heralds the start of a decades-long relationship.
From Valerio having to move to a poor neighborhood in Rome and Olivia making her entrance in high society, life tries to separate them at every turn, but without success, so strong is the bond between them. Year after year they meet only for a few moments, which feel like they’re eternal, and their friendship turns into something more intense, and scary. They take different paths: Olivia travels the world looking for herself, while Valerio devotes himself to a prestigious career that doesn’t satisfy him, in a country that is quickly losing its identity in the political crises of the Berlusconi era. Still, they keep meeting again and again at crossroads in life.
Download and start listening now!
“Narrator Edoardo Ballerini gives a riveting performance of this absorbing coming-of-age novel…Ballerini voices the superb dialogue with his impeccable Italian accent, rendering all characters, regardless of city of origin, class, age, or sex, fully realized. Listeners who enjoy riveting stories set in dramatic locales told by a master storyteller will love this audiobook. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
-
“This exquisitely written epic love story traverses forty years of dark Italian history.”
— Shelf Awareness -
“Nothing better than this novel for understanding Italy in the last half century...There is humor, wit, delicacy, gravity...a powerful and poignant tragicomedy.”
— Le Monde (Paris)
Awards
-
Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
The Year of Our Love Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Caterina Bonvicini
Caterina Bonvicini lives between Rome and Milan and holds a degree in modern literature from the University of Bologna. She is the author of several novels, including L’equilibrio degli squali (2008) which was awarded the Premio Rapallo, Premio Fregene, and Premio Frignano in Italy and the Grand Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro in France. Her books have been translated in several languages.
About Edoardo Ballerini
Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, director, film producer, and multiaward–winning narrator. He has won several Audie Awards for best narration, including for 2019’s Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was named by Booklist as winner of their 2023 Voice of Choice Award, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, from classics to modern masters, from bestsellers to the inspirational, from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to spine-tingling series, and much more. In television and film, he is best known for his roles in A Murder at the End of the World, The Sopranos, 24, I Shot Andy Warhol, Dinner Rush, and Romeo Must Die. He is also trained in theater and continues to do much work on stage.