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A Month in Siena

Hisham Matar

4.07 · Rating details · 312 ratings · 51 reviews

FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND MAN BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR

'Hisham Matar has the quality all historians - of the world and the self - most need: he knows how to stand back and let the past speak' Hilary Mantel on The Return

____________________________________

When Hisham Matar was nineteen years old he came across the Sienese School of painting for the first time. ...more

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Hardcover, 128 pages

Published October 17th 2019 by Viking

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· 312 ratings · 51 reviews

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Nov 14, 2019 Lisa Erickson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A perfect little book. The same clean, intimate writing as Matars The Return (an all time fave). Beautiful writing about grief, history, travel, art, family, relationships. Made me want to visit Siena! ...more

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Dec 20, 2019 Wouter rated it liked it

Shelves: memoir

After the publication of his Pulitzer Prize winning autobiographical novel The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between, Hisham Matar felt drained and longed for a break. He decided to no longer postpone a visit to an Italian city that had long held his fascination: Siena. For years he had visited the National Gallery in London every week to sit among the Sienese paintings, for these works by Duccio, Lorenzetti and other masters enthralled and, indeed, comforted him while he grieved for ...more

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Dec 13, 2019 Matthias rated it it was amazing

A most wonderful profession of love.

The painting understands this. It knows that what we wish for most, even more than paradise, is to be recognized; that regardless of how transformed and transfigured we might be by the passage, something of us might sustain and remain perceptible to those we have spent so long loving.

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Jan 11, 2020 Ruben Vermeeren rated it really liked it

Shelves: to-read-in-2020

3.5

I listened to the audiobook read by the author. I had previously also listened to The Return (which I cannot recommend enough and would be good to read first) and I find Hisham Matar has a very pleasant, calming voice. I can imagine he is a very sensitive and thoughtful person. This little book is something between a travel account, a memoir and an essay - Penguin calls it a contemplation which covers it well. There are some beautiful observations and anecdotes in it. There are not that many ...more

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Jan 26, 2020 ananya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: art, favorites

a gorgeous, rich, tender, textured, evocative delight of a book about love, art, grief, solitude and togetherness

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Nov 12, 2019 joyce w. laudon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A few years ago, I read this author's earlier work, The Return, for a class that I was taking. It was truly an extraordinary book written by a writer of immense talent. The story of the author's return to Libya and his quest (it really is one) to learn more about his father, the book was moving and thought provoking. As soon as I saw this title on NetGalley, I so hoped that I would be provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my review.

So, here I am highly recommending this book to you. ...more

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Nov 12, 2019 Eric Sutton rated it really liked it

I think I read Hisham Matar's books out of order, or, at least, that's what I thought at first. A Month in Siena recalls a pilgrimage to the Italian city following the release of his Pulitzer-Prize winning memoir, The Return, which I have not yet read. I thought the two would be companion pieces in that the catharsis of the first would inform the reclusive peace of the second, and that's true in a sense, but A Month in Siena can certainly be read as its own work. And it's a beautifully-written, ...more

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Mar 04, 2020 Lucie Deacon rated it really liked it

'It was good, I told myself, for my head, suffering from that ardent and melancholy liberty of being between books, to be employed in learning.'

'I knew then I had come to Siena not only to look at paintings. I had also come to grieve alone, to consider the new terrain and to work out how I might continue from here.'

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Mar 19, 2020 Lori rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Just wonderful.

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Dec 12, 2019 Ross rated it it was amazing

A finely crafted little gem. Matar is elegant and poetic, yet cerebral, in his expression. One bathes in his writing, rather than examines it as an outsider. That is how he feels about Siena.

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Jan 01, 2020 Ellen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: art-art-history, memoir, nonfiction

If there is a single book that you might want to begin the eerily named year 2020, it might be "A Month in Siena." I had read reviews and I this was on my list, but my husband gave it to me for Christmas and so I began it yesterday.

It is a small book, only a 127 pages of text, and it fit in my hand the way I imagine a personal psalter or book of hours might, did I live in the Middle Ages and could I afford such a thing. One reads through each chapter as though it were indeed a book of hours, If there is a single book that you might want to begin the eerily named year 2020, it might be "A Month in Siena." I had read reviews and I this was on my list, but my husband gave it to me for Christmas and so I began it yesterday.

It is a small book, only a 127 pages of text, and it fit in my hand the way I imagine a personal psalter or book of hours might, did I live in the Middle Ages and could I afford such a thing. One reads through each chapter as though it were indeed a book of hours, finding meaning for the words that fit the moments of Lauds or Sext or Vespers. How odd that I, an atheist and never-quite-got-there Episcopalian would find this metaphor. Maybe the fact that I am an art historian by trade explains it.

The book was not what I expected. I expected to focus more on Siena and more on some of the masterpieces of the Sienese School. I expected, in short, something that was a little more about art history. I didn't know anything about the author, Hisham Matar, his LIbyan heritage, the disappearance of his father and that delicate balance in time that made him seek the comfort of isolation in Siena, seeking out works of art to which he had long felt an affinity.

Nor was the book an effort to reconcile the Islam in which he had grown up with the Christianity that for better or worse has shaped the west. Early on in the book he refers to the "Abrahamic faiths"--the triad of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that claim a common ancestor. Yet there was much reflection on the past, on life in Cairo, on his unsuccessful effort to learn the fate of his father, abducted from Cairo, taken to Libya and ground out in the darkness of Gaddafi's darkness.

It is a beautiful book to read. The paintings he describes are illustrated in full color, often with details, but not in large glossy plates. I found myself welcome in that space behind his eyes where we shared sight and where his heart was also open to me. As an art historian I did learn something--which is to say, a bright pure light I did not expect illuminated these works for me. More than once I thought, "Yes, I would change both content and approach in my class were I to teach that again."

I am so grateful to Matar for writing this book. In reading it, I accepted it as a gift.

...more

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Nov 17, 2019 John rated it it was ok

Shelves: general-interest

I read the reviews of this book and approached it with great anticipation. While the book was interesting and gave some interesting insights into the art in Siena, I found it to be entirely too introspective and a bit self-centered on the author's part.

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Dec 02, 2019 David Kenvyn rated it really liked it

I read this book on the recommendation of Nick Barley, the Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and it is truly astonishing. For those who do not know much about Siena, it is an Italian city that once rivalled Florence. In the 13th Century, it was the home to a school of painting of incredible subtlety and beauty. This book, by Hisham Matar, is a meditation on those paintings and, therefore, on this history of the city that produced them. It is more than that though. It is a I read this book on the recommendation of Nick Barley, the Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and it is truly astonishing. For those who do not know much about Siena, it is an Italian city that once rivalled Florence. In the 13th Century, it was the home to a school of painting of incredible subtlety and beauty. This book, by Hisham Matar, is a meditation on those paintings and, therefore, on this history of the city that produced them. It is more than that though. It is a very personal reflection on the nature of beauty and on life, in general.
Matar started writing this book just after he had published another book, about the disappearance and presumed death of his father in Qadhafi’s Libya. He never did find out what had happened to his father except that he was taken prisoner by the secret police. This book is, therefore in part, an attempt to come to terms with his loss by connecting with the beauty of the world. We do not really get a hint about whether or not Hisham Matar succeeded. I doubt it, because you never really do come to terms with such a loss. You adapt and you change but you do not recover.
That is why the examination of these paintings of the Sienese school is so extraordinary. As you can see from the illustrations, these paintings are astonishing, beautiful and important historical documents in their own right. They are a statement of the community government of Siena where the Nine governors were chosen from their districts. I am not clear if they were actually elected, and would need a much deeper knowledge of the history of Siena to determine whether or not it was a democracy in the sense that we understand the word today. The remit of the governors was straightforward. It was to ensure the peaceful governance of the city, and therefore the prosperity of tis inhabitants. That is clearly stated in the paintings themselves, in their locations within the government buildings of the city and within the messages that the paintings convey. Matar is an extraordinary and special guide to these paintings. He clearly understands them, and is able to explain the allegory in terms that non-specialists like me will understand.
He also explains how this idyll (if indeed it was such) came to an end. It was the Black Death that changed the governance of Siena. The city was devastated. The power of the civil government was broken, and the influence of the Catholic Church increased exponentially as people turned to the comforts of religion in the face of a disaster. Matar, as a Moslem (and I do not know if he is practising or not), has an interesting understanding of what this meant. The Moslem world was obviously devastated in the same way by the plague, but the response was not the same. The Christian world looked towards repentance as a way of placating God, and many figures emerged who led people towards that idea – St. Francis, St. Dominic, Savonarola etc. It could even be argued that the Black Death was the progenitor of the Reformation. Matar does not go into this in any detail and, indeed, why should he? This is a subject that has been dealt with by historians and the religious from the 14th Century onwards. Matar assumes that we understand these things in part, if not in detail.
This is an extraordinary book. If it does nothing else, it will make you want to go to Siena to look at the paintings. I cannot think of any greater praise than that.
...more

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Jan 07, 2020 SusanBassMarcus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Having lived near Siena for a relatively longer time than Hisham Matar's sojourn, which he eloquently describes in "A Month in Siena," I appreciate his experiences there. As a college student, my encounters with the city were more with people than with a conscious engagement with art and architecture. So, I loved "living" there again through his eyes and his immersion in Siena's interior life. Goodread's book description summarizes this work well. I'd like to add a few passages from the book to ...more

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Dec 27, 2019 Leanne rated it really liked it

I love books about art --especially about particular paintings (like Leap by the great Terry tempest Williams). So I bought this book because I wanted to read about the writer's experience with the Sienese school of painters. This part, honestly, was a disappointment since he doesn't know why exactly he loves this school or why he likes spending so much time looking at them. He doesn't say much about the history of art and where the school fits in either. So this was disappointing. But the book ...more

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Feb 12, 2020 Jordan Chapman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020

A Month in Siena is an exquisite gem about art, love, and loss. Hisham Matar had been intrigued by the Sienese School since university. Following a fruitless search for answers about his fathers disappearance under the Gaddafi regime in Libya, and despite his misgivings of making a pilgrimage to Siena, he decides to spend a month in the town to live with the art hes revered for so long.

While in Siena, Matar immerses himself in the art that gave him solace after his fathers disappearance. ...more

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Dec 21, 2019 Leanne rated it liked it

Let's call this 3 and a half stars. God I wanted to love this book. I wanted this to be a story I returned to year after year to satisfy the craving to return to my favorite Italian city. Alas, it was simply ok. I was aching for glorious descriptions of art and architecture and day to day life living in Siena for a month. There were glimmers of that but he describes ~3 days of his time in Siena with just enough detail to take his mind spinning to another place and time all together. This did not ...more

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Dec 26, 2019 Fernando Pestana da Costa rated it really liked it

Hisham Matar has a love affair with the Sienese School of painting since his youth but only recently did he visit the city, staying there for a whole month. This book is the result: a beautiful work about his life in Siena during that month, together with his reflections on history, art, life, love. Accompanied by sixteen beautiful colour reproductions of some of the paintings he ponders in the text I found this book, which I bought in my favorite Cape Town bookshop ("The Book Lounge") in the ...more

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Mar 10, 2020 Brian Harrison rated it liked it

A very personal and engaging account of a visit, long in the planning. Beautifully written prose, as Hisham Matar takes the reader to discover the paintings he has wished to see,whilst providing the social and historical narrative in which these painting reside.
I have not had the good fortune to visit Siena, but, having read this wonderful story, almost feel that I have. Heart warming, emotional, sad and uplifting, there is much to enjoy in what is a slim book, and I encourage you read it also.

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Feb 04, 2020 Kayleigh rated it it was amazing

Exactly the right book at the right time for me. The deceased outnumber the living. The present is the golden rim of a black cloth. How outrageous it is to be alive, I thought. It filled me with such enthusiasm and dark pride for my race, for how brave and heroic we are in the face of the undeniable evidence that life cannot be maintained, that regardless of what armor we choose, all things must pass. ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Mohamed Gheis rated it it was amazing

Matars attractive style very evident: detailed, ripe descriptions taking the reader the limits of every scene.
Matar presents aspects of his life, his fathers abduction, politics and culture intermingled with sights and sounds from a trip to Siena. Also, a lot learn about Sienese art, history and politics from this book. ...more

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Feb 08, 2020 Maggie rated it really liked it

It reads like a diary about a month in Sienna with the author ruminating about past, present and future. We had a lively discussion about the book in our bookclub. With very different opinions. I love the language in the book and some part are absolutely beautiful. Definitely worth reading on my part, but dont expect a story with a clear beginning and end. ...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Kevin McDonough rated it it was amazing

A wonderful read that threads the authors view of art generally and art in Siena specifically into a faithful account of all that concerns us Along the way he visits with people, family, philosophers, and places. Do not be daunted by the subject matter. Time with this book goes by quickly but its voice will stay for a while. A good candidate for a re read. ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 Melissa Muirhead rated it it was amazing

This is a beautiful little book that rather transfixed me. It doesnt fit easily into one category. It is part a love story, particularly to art, it is in part a memoir about a time of transition and grief and part history of a place. He writes beautifully and I think he could write anything and Id read it, the same way I feel about Patti Smith and her books. ...more

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Mar 07, 2020 Patricia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: art, italy, memoir-biography

I read one or two chapters every few days and loved the contemplative space they created. I still feel like I need to reread to appreciate it fully or to say much about it. The last section on Giovanni di Paola's Paradise, where friends and lovers meet again, was especially moving. And serendipitous, because I was also reading Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard" at the same time.

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Mar 06, 2020 Jason RB rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bought, biography, art

awonderful, wonderful book. so well written the prose are just sublime. They make a subject the doesn't really interest me (the Sienese art) into something that i would to go and visit (virus providing ofcourse)

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Mar 19, 2020 Maggie rated it really liked it

I loved Matar's previous book "The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between." This much slighter volume was written soon after that was published. It is a wonderful discourse on art and a meditation on life. Thought provoking and enjoyable -

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Dec 19, 2019 Robert H Leedy rated it really liked it

Though his goal to spend a month looking at paintings of the Sienese School and his descriptions of them were what initially attracted me to the book, my real enjoyment came from his personal thoughts, reflections and discoveries in a very special Tuscan city.

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Mar 02, 2020 Nina rated it it was amazing

I would highly recommend this book. Even though it is about architecture and art it has so much more beautiful language aspects to it that it would be relevant to anyone. It is a quick read and very inspiring on so many levels.

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Jan 13, 2020 Claire Steele rated it it was amazing

A Month in Siena and an engagement with eternity: this is a pearl of a book - thoughtful and compassionate, full of insights about humanity, love, belonging and art. A book for life with resurrection at its heart. Highly recommended.

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About Hisham Matar

Hisham Matar

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Hisham Matar was born in New York City, where his father was working for the Libyan delegation to the United Nations. When he was three years old, his family went back to Tripoli, Libya, where he spent his early childhood. Due to political persecutions by the Ghaddafi regime, in 1979 his father was accused of being a reactionary to the Libyan revolutionary regime and was forced to flee the country ...more