A Fool's Alphabet is a literary tour de force - an evocative A to Z exploration of one man's odyssey through the late twentieth century. Pietro Russell, the son of an Italian mother and a British soldier father, lives the nomadic life of a photographer. In a series of vivid snapshots, each corresponding to a letter of the alphabet, Sebastian Faulks brings Pietro's extraordinary experiences to life.As he travels from Anzio to Zanica, we glimpse the intimate contours of Pietro's journey: D for Dorking, the boarding school where he receives his eccentric education; L for Lyndonville and the Vermont country home where he discovers that "to make love to an American girl was to occupy some of that endless country for himself"; O for Oxford, the site of his amusing sessions with a probing psychiatrist; and W for Watsonville, a small town outside San Francisco where Pietro is forced to come to terms with his adored mother's death as well as the loss of his first love.As we dart from the awkwardness of adolescence to the realization of manhood to the fulfillment of having one's own child, familiar experiences are magically transformed by Faulks's luminous writing - warm, tinged with humor, penetrating in its impact. Each page explores and illuminates the larger and important themes of love and death, human need and human desire. The pieces of this strikingly inventive and moving new novel, intimately woven together, resonate with drama and emotional intensity, creating an almost visual record of what is seen through Pietro's own life lens. As he projects his inner feelings onto this mosaic of experiences, his seemingly ordinary life becomes extraordinary - and reveals to each of us our own pictures, images, and realities. A Fool's Alphabet is an unforgettable chronicle of contemporary life - our life - and a magnificent and rewarding novel of rare intelligence and emotional bravery. Read Less