"Don't bother"
If you have money and time to waste, buy this book, otherwise skip it. There is no real plot it's basically a collection of people who happen to be tied together by the newspaper they worked for in Italy. Boring and depressing are the keys words I give for this book. I kept waiting for it to get interesting and for me to care for at least one of the characters, never happened. All were too self absorbed and pitiful rather than endearing.
Felt bad for the narrator, it must have been hard for him to make this book even the slightest bit more interesting.