My Little Donkey: And Other Essays

by Martha Cooley

A collection of searching, curious, and surprising essays catalyzed by the author's move in her sixties to a small Italian village, exploring selfhood, coincidence, inheritance, and the impermanence of identity

In 2021, in her mid-sixties, Martha Cooley moved with her husband from the United States to Castiglione del Terziere, a village in northernmost Tuscany. Prompted by this relocation, the essays in My Little Donkey chronicle her encounters with people, animals, the past, and herself as she reckons with the fallout of a major life-change. 

Following curiosity where it leads, Cooley delves into music and silence, the vagaries of history, the complexity of familial legacies, and the presence and power of animals in human lives. With its spirited examinations of uncanny coincidences and chance events, My Little Donkey’s varied essays offer the vivid pleasures of story combined with the provocations of a writer looking behind the curtain of appearances, intent on honest assessments of what she sees and feels. Whimsical yet at the same time intellectually and emotionally bold, these essays tackle the conundrum of time’s how to adapt, pay attention, embrace contradiction, and enjoy the ride?

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 18, 2025

About the author

Martha Cooley lives in Forest Hills, Queens (New York City) and Castiglione del Terziere, Italy--a tiny medieval village populated mainly by cats. A Professor of English at Adelphi University, she formerly taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars, and she leads workshops in creative writing in Tuscany. With her husband Antonio Romani, she translates fiction and poetry from Italian.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

She should have titled it after her many, many cats.

[Ben M · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing has a steady, grounded tone that made even complex ideas feel approachable.

[TBos · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. My library borrowing time expired and I did not care to renew. Yawn.