Lallo Romano
Pushkin Press
26 August 2025
160
eBook - PDF
Modern Classics
ARC via Edelweiss
A starkly beautiful blend of novel, memoir and elegy, In Farthest Seas tells the story of a complex, life-long love through brief, startling moments of epiphany. Divided into 2 sections, the book focuses on the first 4 years and final 4 months of Lalla Romano’s relationship with her husband, Innocenzo Monti.
Beginning with the couple’s meeting in Cuneo, Italy, Romano recounts their early attraction and burgeoning connection that developed on hikes in the surrounding Alps. Snapshots of conversation about music and painting reveal depths that come to represent the essence of their relationship, as the section builds to a close with their wedding and arrival at their first home together.
The subtle note of elegy that sounds throughout the 1st section comes to the fore in the 2nd, a sharply poignant account of Innocenzo’s decline and death. Romano’s prose builds musical leitmotifs from the themes of love and death, braiding the ending of their relationship with its beginning, building to a quietly powerful and startlingly private symphony.
I struggled to get into In Farthest Seas at first. It took me a while to settle into the vignette style of the narrative and follow the story. Once I did, though, the tale began to grow on me, and I think it all came together beautifully once we reached the second section. This was clearly a very personal work for the author, and a final love letter of sorts to her husband, and I think it succeeds in capture the emotions of a life-long relationship. Nonetheless, it wasn't a book that thrilled or gripped me, and I can't see myself ever wanting to read it again; therefore, I am giving it 3.5 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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