The blurb that enticed me to select this title on NetGalley mentioned how ‘Romano sought to distil the essence of their long life together’ by retelling the story of the beginning and the end of their marriage, using ‘shard-like moments of connection and revelation….and fleeting instants that come to reveal the barest truths of life and death. Unsparing yet tender, minimal yet monumental.’

So I was prepared for fragmentary writing but not for how disjointed the writing actually was and right from the start I found myself lost in a sea of assumed knowledge and personal associations. Who were all these people? Who was Lallo Romano? What was going on?

Half the time I had no idea where I was, who she was talking about or what was going on. It was so stream-of-consciousness that I suspect not even Romano’s closest friends would understand all the references! But every now and again, a sentence would jump out – startling me with its audacity, humour and truthfulness.

"I always had the impression that he bathed not to clean himself but as an act of worship. I had fun watching him, and always laughed when he floured his sweet and robust ornaments with talcum powder, turning them over as one does in the kitchen with things to fry."

Which brings me to one of the curious things about Romano. She was not shy about writing such intimate and personal details, yet she refused to use accurate terminology. Sex was referred to as ‘the thing’ and other bodily parts and functions were also described euphemistically.

There is no doubt about the enduring, tender love that Romano and Innocenzo shared thoughout their married life together, I just wish the narrative had been easier to follow and that she had been able to draw me into her world more. Instead I was left out in the cold, staring in through an opaque window at shadowy images flitting across my line of vision.

Recommended for readers who already have a bookish relationship with Romano.

The book is essentially fragments of the author's own life, triggered by the death of her husband, and this telling the story of their relationship from beginning to end.

What I liked about the book was the tender depiction of quotidian love, and how such love can still be nourished and thrive after decades together. The author does a great job at depicting the plethora of tiny and seemingly insignificant gestures that form the basis of a loving relationship, and get etched into one's self for years to come, over and above the monumental events of one's life. Not everything is perfect, but it's actually the tougher moments from their past she recounts that make the impression of a lasting love stronger, due to the acceptance of flaws and imperfections in each other, and the preference to stay together. There is a memorable line where the author describes an event she did something that her husband disapproved of, but chose not to chide her for. Just a small moment of acceptance and love.

It's also hard to write about this book without mentioning the author's way with words. It was clear to me that this was a poet writing in prose - the sentences were sharp, chiseled, and affecting. Many struck me and made me pause. It's beautiful use of language and phrasing, and I loved it.

What I struggled with a bit is the lack of context. This is the first book by the author I read, and it felt to me to be too embedded in the rest of her life's work. The impression I got is that most (if not all) her books are inspired or are essentially retellings of aspects of her life. The references to the various events (and people) in her life the author seems to expect the reader of this book to already be familiar with is a bit much. I found it frustrating at times, and it actually made me struggle with the book more than I had to.

Recommended to anyone dealing with loss, and anyone wanting to read about what love can look like after decades of living together.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

🌊 A quiet meditation on love, absence, and the spaces between words.
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‎In Farthest Seas by Lalla Romano
‎Romano’s In Farthest Seas is both tender and piercing, a novel that explores love and distance—both physical and emotional—through letters and memory. The writing has a simplicity to it, but underneath lies a quiet devastation that sneaks up on you. It’s about longing, about how absence shapes presence, and about the way intimacy survives—or doesn’t—across time and space.
‎
‎The beauty of the novel is how much it says with so little. Romano’s restraint works like poetry, letting you fill in the silences with your own ache. If you’re the kind of reader who loves the weight of unspoken things, this one will sit with you long after the last page.

This is a quiet, tender story told through a series of vignettes. It’s meditative, slow-paced, and beautiful. While the story feels very personal, it doesn’t quite create a sense of intimacy—it doesn’t quite get under my skin. I think that might be due to a translation gap. Still, I admire the author’s bravery in writing such a personal and contemplative piece. There are plenty of beautiful sections to reflect on. I hope this book finds you at the right time.

This was horrifyingly boring. I wanted to get through my NetGalley reads and this made me dread the fact. Not a bad writer, but the way this was structured was painful

Thank you NetGalley

A memoir by Lalla Romano, this traces the arc of a lifelong love between herself and her husband, Innocenzo Monti. From their meeting in Cuneo to the quiet joy of their wedding and shared home to his final moments and death, this story offers a writer’s view on love and loss.

“A cosmic slowness distended time, because the time was so little.”

Romano’s writing is undoubtedly beautiful. A mix of prose and poetry, this short memoir showcased her ability to flourish a sentence and evoke the feelings within a situation.

I think that you know of Romano’s’ work, this would be of more interest and would show her vulnerability, not only in the beginning of her relationship with Monti, but also in his death. Unfortunately I didn’t know anything at all which may have impeded on my view of this book.

Because of this, I did find myself removed from the first half of this memoir. Their story felt very fragmented and I think it was just the way it was written. Much like stream-of-consciousness style writing, it felt like there was no reasoning or connectedness and I didn’t see or understand the growth or even the passion of the relationship. However, I found the second half more resonant, as it centred on what they had built together as a family and the final moments of his life, capturing the depth of their connection through the lens of grief and loss.

“We did not know
that the eternal is a tempest
now we tremble
in our miserable vestments
in the article wind.”

Littered throughout, there are some magnificent pieces of thought and poetry and though at times the structure may feel disjointed, it does present the tender bonds we form. 2/5

Thanks to Steerforth & Pushkin and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Available on the 26 August 2025.

This reads like memoir, small vignettes in a relationships beginning and end. It’s quiet with beautiful writing, an easy read as the chapters are mostly short.

It was quite a challenge for me to get on with the story at once. The first part of this book described the first four years of a love which developed characters and provided some kind of basis as well as background for supporting the next part. Then the second part depicted the last four months of the love with flashbacks and feelings accompanied by poetry and references.
The book was written in a stream of consciousness. Jumping from memory to thought to present feeling. It was like picking up pieces of fragmentation and putting it back to reconstruct the whole experiences. These fragments were raw and honest while presented the vulnerability and exclusivity of a life long love. Some of the writings and phasing were disturbing but I was not sure if they were caused by style or translation problems. And for me, some of the quotations and references in the book were hard to follow.
Although the book provided not enough building for the characters which made me hard to feel for them, but it showed every tiny threads of thoughts and emotions of the author. It was a book that portrayed different angles of love and grief with plain and straightforward writing. It suited someone who wanted to explore the beauty of sentiment in a tranquil way.
Thank you Pushkin Press for the arc.

I think it was well written, but I couldn't engage with the story at all, sorry. I didn't like it and I found it a bit boring.

Though lyrical at times and filled with loving words towards her husband, the structure of this book kept me at a distance and didn't allow me to connect to the story, which is surprising considering the subject matter.

Lalla Romano (1906-2001), an Italian novelist, poet, journalist and artist turned her attention from painting to writing, thanks to motivation from famous author Cesare Pavese.
Upon the death of her husband Innocenzo Monti, the author seeks to distil the essence of her life with her husband, writing about it with a certain tenderness at times and a searing sharpness at others. There are moments of connection and revelation in this novella structured into two parts - the first part deals with the first four years of their relationship and the second part about the final four months before his death from myeloma. Originally published in the year 1987, the translation by Brian Robert Moore is available now.

Written in the form of vignettes of recollection, the first part details little moments of their first meeting, the decision to get married, the array of family members and their opinions on their marriage etc , little lively. The second part is on the ill health of the author's husband, it takes an emotional toll on us readers as the stinging honesty in writing is addled with macabre humour. The last page of the book leaves us teary eyed.

Part two made up pretty well for the lack of connect I had with part one. The novella feels more like loosely stitched journal entries. With several references that Italians may best appreciate, the absence of context impeded a greater connect with the book for me. What stood out for me is how different the author and her husband are yet how their love bridged them through the rough similarities they shared.

These lines felt lovely -
"I used to think of us: he, something dry, warm, hard, and yet also soft. Myself, something damp, ardent, and yet also ‘stony’. "
"Innocenzo always had for religion more or less the same absence of passion that he had for philosophy: as opposed to me. But while he was never interested in philosophical ‘problems’, he was in truth philosophical, at least in the sense of ‘wise’. Similarly, he was more religious than I was, but in a different way, by which I mean without any interest in theology."
The lines at the end of the novella will always stay with me for they left me moist eyed - ("In an old poem, from our first years together in Cuneo, I’d written: ‘I think we will sleep side by side / under the same stone’. It was one of the many premonitions which, in that still-youthful period, thronged my imagination. It was a vision of closeness and at the same time of extreme separateness: …and if even there I’m troubled by dreams, I will stretch out a hand to touch your hand: it will be cold as stone, and cold your recumbent face, and you will not answer me. But we won’t be next to one another. Under the stone are two burial compartments which are not side by side, but laid one on top of the other. They asked me: ‘Should we put him above or below?’I said: ‘In sleeping cars, I would go above and he below. Do it that way.’) The afterword by the author helps us understand how or why she wrote this book.

In Farthest Seas is a requiem the author pens down by looking back at her life, an elegy for the love she shared for her husband, one that will never fade or diminish in his absence.

Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Press for the ARC.

The writing here is simply stunning. The decision to tell the story from the first 4 years and last 4 months of their relationship was genius. It added a specific depth and intimacy to the story I wasn't prepared for. A masterwork.

such a personal and touching read. it felt like i was getting to know someone most darling love. this felt like it was written by someone writing about a love of their own. really liked the premise of it and led me to think how i might right certain relationships in this way. our first moments meetings someone to how it ends. and with this one it felt like it was a cherished relationship we were given glimpses to. with those small but most important moments you have with someone you truly love, or truly cherish. its the small things. the moments you dont need to scream or get applause for. just love. just moments but put together make such a whole.
at first i felt like it might feel to clever for me. i dont know why. but once i settled in to knowing how it was set out and getting the feeling of pace and structure i felt much better about it.
this book was quiet and knowing. it felt like it didn't need any big twists,bang or huge plot points. but somehow it had all those things just by being what it was and true to itself. it felt important for being just that.

This was a beautifilly written book. Romano has a beautiful way with words and I really enjoyed watching the characters develop throughout the story

it FEELS LIKE someone reminiscing in their personal journal about their dead partner and the love that they had, but (FEELS LIKE) that wasn't intended for the public, so while reading, I FEEL LIKE I'm being held at arms length and reluctantly told their story in disjointed pieces & I FEEL disconnected from the author and her story

probably (most definitely) I'm the one that's not invited to engage with this piece & therefore am in the minority regarding how I feel about this book

all that to say, this unfortunately wasn't my cup of tea

This book felt like the author’s diary or writings intended for her family to read. Due to the writing style of vignettes and lack of detail, I constantly felt as though I was reading a very personal account of this person’s life that I had no business reading. The storytelling did not give me a chance to get invested in the relationship or the moments. The style didn’t click for me and mostly left me confused. You can absolutely tell that this is a very personal novel for the author, however it left me feelings like I read someone’s personal writings unintended for me to see.

Arc provided for honest review

The depiction of Lalla Romano's first four years with her husband, and the final four months of their time together, was a story that unfortunately didn’t resonate with me. But still I can recommend this book. Let me explain why.

The book is written in the form of vignettes, which creates a beautiful portrait of Lalla’s inner world. These short glimpses capture the emotional turmoil she experiences, along with her stream of thoughts and reflections. It’s almost popcorn-style storytelling, quick pieces that introduce us to many people connected to her and her husband’s lives. Some of these figures reappear later, others are fleeting presences, but each leaves an impression and shapes her story in some way.

Emotionally, the book is heavy and very much rooted in the theme of anticipatory grief. The sections covering the four months before her husband’s death were especially powerful. It might sound a little macabre, but those pages felt the most raw and vulnerable to me. Romano’s ability to capture the intimate weight of that time, without dramatizing it, was deeply moving.

Even if parts of the narrative didn’t align with my taste, I admire the honesty and quiet strength within it. It’s a meditative read that lingers.

This was absolutely stunning, I’m so grateful to be able to get an ARC for this book. I think most people’s issue come with the translation—it isn’t a very good one, and the only reason I can handle it is my familiarity with the grammar.

Despite those flaws, which knocked it down a star, this was a raw and harrowing story, which made me feel as if I was right there alongside her in her grief. Knowing how it ends and feeling the anticipation was just so horrific. I loved it very page

In Farthest Seas is described as a book about the first 4 years and last 4 months of the authors life with her husband, but that doesn't feel exactly true. In actuality. this book is a series of vignettes of Romano's life with her husband. Every chapter is only one or two pages that provide a brief glimpse into their time together.

The first part, which is very short, is their courtship. She talks about the first time she saw him, how they met, the lead up to their marriage etc. This part was interesting but sometimes confusing because of excessive references that I didn't know. There are footnotes at the end of the book, but as I read the ebook these were not convenient to refer to.

The second part, which is the longer part of the book, delves into memories from after they are married. I think this section was much more emotional than the first, and though it also had a lot of references to things and names I didn't know, there are so many very emotional chapters that I loved it anyway. I wish I owned a physical copy of this book because this would be perfect to annotate and refer to in the future.

This book is in the same vein as Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking , but Romano's book sets the stage with the beginning of her relationship with her husband, and then follows the last months of her husband's life as he is dying of cancer. The translation seems ok, but I had to puzzle out what sentences were supposed to say every so often. Maybe a dual language format would have been helpful to see what the Italian original said at those points, if that was the best English translation possible. Not a great fit for me, but this book might be appreciated better by readers dealing with cancer diagnoses and death.