This book offers a muted portrait of urban solitude marked by an undercurrent of longing. Lahiri's narrator, who deliberately fills her quiet life with routines and rituals. This book was originally written in Italian, and later translated into English by Lahiri herself. The unnamed narrator of this slim book is a somewhat peevish, unmarried, middle-aged writer and literature professor who has lived in the same Italian city her entire life. In a series of meditative and melancholy episodes that span nearly a year, she records her efforts to locate her place in the world.