Description

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“A lyrical and moving exploration of the ways in which the heart governs even the pursuit of a life of the mind, this a book for anyone who has ever loved Rome, as well as anyone who shares the experience of having found, in an unfamiliar history, their own unexpected home.” —Rebecca Mead, author of My Life in Middlemarch and Home/Land

In this exquisite and profound memoir, a medieval historian traces her lifelong obsession with Rome and the encounters with the city’s past and present that became fulcrum points in her life

From the time she first felt called to its gates as a high school student fascinated by Dante and Italian thanks to a life-changing teacher, Rome has been a fixed star around which Alizah Holstein’s life has rotated—despite the fact that she bears no Italian heritage, and has never lived there long enough to call it home. 

In this kaleidoscopic yet intimate memoir, her shifting relationship to a vibrant city layered with human history becomes a lens on why we look to the past, on the mysteries of affinity and desire, and on what it means to grow up. Holstein weaves the stories of Romans past and present, and encounters with the city of historical figures from Petrarch to Freud, into the narrative of her evolution from a curious student abuzz with the thrill of discovery, to a lonely researcher in a city to which she feels she belongs despite knowing no one, to an ambitious young historian struggling to find her place in the halls of academia. Following a trail of memories—that first taste of a tartufo cioccolato in Piazza Navona, the ancient walls of the Via Appia blurring from the back of a motorcycle, the smudge of ink on a manuscript left by a scribe's hand over seven hundred years before—she explores what it means to be romana, Roman—and to find solace and self-knowledge in the presence of the past.

An enveloping, original, and deeply resonant account, set against one of the world's most beguiling cities, of the unexpected things that give our lives meaning, My Roman History is a profound depiction of the winding path to self-realization, which—much like history itself—is mysterious, captivating, and ever-unfolding.

About the Author

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Alizah Holstein is an independent editor with a Ph.D. in History from Cornell University and an International MFA in Nonfiction Writing & Literary Translation from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in Providence, RI with her husband and children.

Praise For…

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Advance praise for My Roman History:


“More heartfelt memoir than dry history lesson, the product of Holstein's lifelong fascination with Rome answers her primary questions: “What can an American tell anyone about Roman history? What could she say that an Italian had not already said? How could I know anything about Rome that an actual living, breathing Roman did not?” She turns up plenty. An intriguing history of Rome as reflected in a scholar’s life.” —Kirkus Reviews


“How does longing take flight, and what determines where it chooses to lodge? As a Dante-struck American teen, Alizah Holstein set her sights—along with all her other senses—upon Rome, and in My Roman History she recounts the birth, growth and maturing of a passionate attachment both to the living city and the past ones that dwell within it. A lyrical and moving exploration of the ways in which the heart governs even the pursuit of a life of the mind, this is a book for anyone who has ever loved Rome, as well as anyone who shares the experience of having found, in an unfamiliar history, their own unexpected home.” —Rebecca Mead, author of My Life in Middlemarch and Home/Land

“A stunning memoir. By weaving the sweep of Roman history with the search for self, Alizah Holstein has written something simultaneously fresh, relevant, and revelatory. A triumph!” —Maira Kalman, author of Women Holding Things

“With lyricism and fierce intelligence, My Roman History investigates the influence of ancient history on one woman's quest for identity in this modern world. Alizah Holstein has crafted a spellbinding story about her relationship not just with Rome, but with the attendant texts and personalities that have populated her intellectual and emotional life.” —Luisa Weiss, author of My Berlin Kitchen

“This is a book about obsession and how far it can carry us in life—towards ancient metropolises and new lovers, towards landscapes and languages previously undiscovered, and even through long periods of struggle and loss. Here Rome is both light and lighthouse, holding the author (and readers alike) enraptured by its radiant shores.” —Elizabeth Rush, author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore