This was the perfect read for a long weekend of travels. So funny and heartwarming. Sybil is an increadibly charming correspondent, a grumpy granny that is impossible not to love. I especially enjoyed how she managed to incarnate this archetype, whilst defying many of these stereotypes associated with it: yes, she loves gardening, has a lot of ideas about propriety, and hates emails, but she had a career in law, enjoys getting attention from multiple men, and engages with open-mindedess and curiosity with the ideas of the younger people in her life, a life that is very full indeed.

I have two minor gripes with the plot [spoilers ahead]: (1) I did think the storyline about the dead child got a bit too much at the very end (2) I often feel that disenfranchised Italian migrants are inserted into stories to critique anti-migration sentiments in a way that may appeal to racist people who have now come around to see Italian as whites. In itself, nothing wrong with that, but here it feels a bit forced: by the 1960s, I don't think many people would have migrated to the States, especially not from Lombardy.