I rented the movie version of Giorgio Bassani's "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" more years ago then I care to count. I remembered absolutely nothing about it except for the video cover so I was interested to see if the novel felt familiar.

It did, not not in relation to the story, but because it frequently reminded me of Evelyn Waugh's excellent "Brideshead Revisited," but set in Italy and featuring young Jewish adults trying to hang on the remnants of past lives on the eve of the Holocaust.

While there isn't a whole lot that happens plot wise, the writing is beautiful and carries the story along wonderfully. I enjoyed this book a lot.