Still Life

Still Life is a contemporary work of historical fiction by British author and actress Sarah Winman. The novel traces the impact of World War II on Italy and the British expatriates living there. Still Life shows the lives of LGBTQ+ characters during the mid-20th century, when gay and lesbian relationships were legally and/or culturally prohibited. The novel was a Sunday Times bestseller as well as a Guardian Best Book of 2021, a winner of the InWords Literary Award, and the recipient of many other prizes. Winman is the author of three other novels, including Tin Man (2017) and the international bestseller When God Was a Rabbit (2011).

This guide uses the 2021 G. P. Putnam's Sons Kindle edition of Still Life.

Plot Summary

The novel is divided into nine chapters, and each chapter focuses on one to several years from the 1940s to the 1970s in England and Italy.

The novel begins in 1944, toward the end of World War II in Italy. Margaret and Evelyn Skinner, two older British women with a passion for art history, take refuge from the war in a villa in Tuscany. Evelyn is attempting to help Allied forces track down and protect precious art works in war-occupied territories; she and Margaret used to be lovers, but now they’re only friends. Meanwhile, a British soldier named Ulysses Temper is serving with the Allied forces as they begin to liberate Florence. He meets Evelyn on the road because she is looking for someone to speak with about the art treasures in the area. He brings her to meet his commander and good friend Captain Darnley, who also has a passion for art. They take Evelyn to see a priceless altarpiece, but when enemy artillery strikes their headquarters, Darnley and Ulysses drive Evelyn back to her villa.

Meanwhile, in London, Ulysses’s wife, Peggy, is trying to start a new life without him. She works as a bartender in a pub but must endure constant harassment from the male patrons who find her attractive. Peggy wants to date Eddie, an American soldier, because she hopes he will bring her back to America with him. Peggy and Ulysses don’t write to each other, preferring to meet again when the war is done and sort their lives out then. Before the war ends, Darnley dies in action in September at the age of 30.

Ulysses returns to London when the war ends. While he’s been away, his father’s business has been shattered, and his wife Peggy has had a child with Eddie. Eddie has been missing for years, and Peggy doesn’t know whether he’s dead or has moved on from her. Peggy’s daughter, Alys, reminds her too much of Eddie and of Peggy’s loss of independence, so she resents Alys.

Peggy and Ulysses have a tumultuous reunion, but eventually, they learn how to be friends again, and Ulysses becomes a father figure to Alys. They both find employment after the war; Ulysses starts working in Col’s bar with his friend Cress, as Peggy has become a typist. Col, the owner of the bar, has a daughter, Ginny, who has an intellectual disability; though Ginny is an adult, she acts and thinks like a child. Therefore, when Ginny gets pregnant, Col is determined to find the man who took advantage of her.

Small-town dramas like this inform Ulysses’s new civilian life. The years go by, and London starts to rebuild itself from the damage caused by the war. Ulysses discovers that Arturo, an Italian soldier whose life he saved during the war, has died and left everything in his will—his property in Florence and his money—to Ulysses. Ulysses decides to move to Italy. Peggy refuses to go with him but sends Alys with him so Alys can have a better, more loving life. Cress also decides to move to Italy with Ulysses.

Cress, Ulysses, and Alys move to Florence. On the way to Florence, Cress reveals that he snuck Claude the parrot out of Col’s bar and into Europe to join them on their move. They are astounded by the wealth Arturo left for them; the house is so big that they turn the first-floor apartment into a pensione for tourists. A notary named Massimo helps them set up in their new life, and the group begins to adapt to their neighborhood’s culture and the Italian language. At Christmas, friends from home, including Peggy and her boyfriend Ted, come to visit. Peggy’s personality has diminished within her relationship with Ted—he is very controlling, and she holds a lot of shame from her past. Claude the parrot warns Peggy not to marry Ted, but she does anyway.

In their first few months in Italy, Cress starts to come out of his shell more. He starts reading literature and dating an Italian woman in the neighborhood, and Alys starts school and makes new friends. Meanwhile, Ulysses starts making globes, wondering if he can restart his father’s former craft. Ulysses often thinks of Evelyn and wonders where and how she is, and whether she is still alive.

Evelyn is indeed alive. After the war, she moved back to England to become an art history teacher, and she is much beloved by her students. She and her girlfriend, a famous artist named Dotty, visit Florence in 1955, but she narrowly misses seeing Ulysses. Evelyn meets Alys, and when Alys tells Ulysses about a woman named Evelyn, he rushes to the train station to find her, but he misses her train. Over the next few years, Evelyn often travels to Florence and frequents the same neighborhood where Ulysses lives. Each time, they miss running into one another.

At age 14, Alys discovers her sexuality. She likes girls but tries to keep her relationship with an American girl named Romy a secret. As Alys grows up, Ulysses can sense the distance between them and wishes they could be closer. Alys likes music and art, and she is at the beginning stages of finding herself. She tells Ulysses about being in love with a girl, which he readily accepts. He has Massimo help talk to Alys about her sexuality being normal and beautiful. When Alys turns 17, she moves to London to work in Col’s bar and go to art school. While at art school, Alys attends one of Evelyn Skinner’s art history lectures.

Peggy’s relationship with Ted is complicated by Peggy’s loss of autonomy. The years go on, and Ulysses remains alone, now longing for Giulia, the married manager of his favorite café. Cress is in a long-term relationship with an Italian woman named Paola, and when she dies suddenly, Cress is devastated. Cress turns to nature for comfort. Friends Pete, Col, and Peggy pay a surprise visit to be with Cress to help him through the tough time he is having. When Ulysses learns this, he wonders how Peggy was able to travel without her possessive husband. Meanwhile, Alys, now 21, has moved back to Florence.

In 1966, the river Arno floods, and Florence is devastated as a result. People die, thousands are displaced from their homes, and priceless artworks are destroyed. The flood and its aftermath remind Italians of the war. Many young people flock to the city to help with reconstruction; their generosity and commitment to their culture gives them the nickname “Mud Angels.” Evelyn hears the news in England and rushes to Italy when she sees a newspaper photograph of Ulysses in the wreckage. When she arrives, they are finally reunited after 22 years. The flooding of the Arno is a historically accurate and significant moment in Italian history that sparks cultural and institutional change. Evelyn moves permanently into Ulysses’s pensione in Florence. When Peggy is in a disastrous car accident, Col moves her from London to Florence, where she stays for years and rekindles a relationship with Alys. Cress and the parrot Claude die together, and the pensione family leaves his ashes in the countryside so he can grow into a tree.

The 1970s see a new Italy, where frequent political protests challenge Italy’s unity. Massimo’s mother dies, and he then also moves into the pensione. Major changes take place for the characters as well. Alys and Romy reunite and fall in love again. Peggy divorces Ted and starts singing with Pete. In a club, she meets an American named Glen, who tells her that Eddie died six months after their time in London; Eddie was in love with Peggy and had every intention of marrying her. Peggy and Glen fall in love. Evelyn turns 99 years old and is celebrated by all her loved ones in Florence.

The novel flashes back to just before Evelyn’s 21st birthday when she moves to Florence. There, she meets the poet Constance Everly, who takes Evelyn under her wing and teaches her about Italian art and literature. Evelyn immediately falls in love with Italy and is moved to her core by the beauty of the country and its art. She then falls in love with Livia, who is a maid in the boardinghouse where Evelyn is staying. Evelyn meets the soon-to-be famous novelist E. M. Forster touring Italy with his mother. Evelyn tells him about her room with a view, and later, E. M. Forster will write an iconic novel about an Englishwoman in Italy titled A Room with a View. Livia and Evelyn end their passionate love affair when Evelyn leaves for Rome to be with her aunt. Eventually, communications with Livia cease and when Evelyn returns to Florence, Livia is nowhere to be found. Evelyn keeps the violet Livia gave her for the rest of her life, and she learns to move through the pain of losing this first love by cherishing her memory.

In the final moments of Still Life, the narrative returns to Evelyn and Ulysses together again in Florence. They visit the grave of Captain Darnley, and both choose to remember their lost loved ones as young, happy, and full of life.