The Italian city of Siena is the book’s main character, pushing and molding the narrative. Matar writes about the dialogue between the city’s private and public spaces – the “magnificent interiors” and “frescoed ceilings” in opposition with the “understated exteriors” and “twisting lanes” of the town. Matar meditates, “We think of buildings not as spaces where human life takes shape, but rather as sites for certain functions and activities.” He is concerned with the living that takes place inside architecture; he asks, “What is it like to be born here, and what is it like to die here?”, adding that those “twin questions have followed me into every city.”

The reader understands that this is how he engages with a place, how the paintings that he analyses and examines are another way of experiencing the city in which they are kept. There is little dialogue in the book in the traditional sense; Matar initially is travelling with his wife Diane, but after she leaves, he is predominantly alone in Siena. He meets an immigrant woman and a Sienese family, but the narrative is actually a pas-à-deux is between him and the city. He muses, and Siena speaks back to him: “I was not so much inside a city as inside an idea, an allegory that was lending itself to my needs.”

Catherine Benett