Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English solder, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a Tuscan villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth in Florence, her lost love, and a surprising friendship with a young E. M. Forster.

In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amongst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades. As he returns home to the East End of London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot--a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics--Ulysses carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate and returns to the Tuscan hills.

With gorgeous prose and extraordinary tenderness, Still Life is a richly drawn tapestry of the individuals who come together to make a family, and a sweeping portrait of beauty and love.