Marcus of Umbria

“Van der Leun, a fish out of water struggling to fit into her Italian surroundings, is hilarious. Her relationship with the adorable Marcus is told from the heart.”
USA Today

“A sweet, disarming story finds a young New York editor venturing to Italy to pursue romance with a sexy gardener and ending up falling for a neglected dog instead. In her straightforward, unembellished prose...the author manages to capture the lovely, vanishing Old World ways of these tightly knit people, while also interweaving a heart-melting tale.”
Publishers Weekly

“Van der Leun’s memoir is a funny and surprisingly tender story about culture shock, and the unwavering love of a dog.”
Booklist

“Her fish-out-of-water stories are affectionate, appalling and funny.“
Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“This memoir features a New York editor in Italy who finds that the English pointer she adopts is a worthier companion than the sexy gardener she had set her sights on. Charming.”
People

“Fans of books like Eat, Pray, Love will enjoy Marcus of Umbria, a story of self-discovery rooted in travel, romance, friendship, and adventure.... A perfect book to bring on vacation.”
Modern Dog Magazine

“It’s a wonderful story about impulsively immersing yourself into a totally strange world, finding out that you’re in over your head, and latching on to a source of joy (and frustration) that comes out of nowhere.”
Beatrice.com

“Justine van der Leun is blessed with the elusive gift of storytelling. In prose both lyrical and spare, she captures the beauty of a foreign land, the comedy of cultural clashes, the mystery of love lost and found, and, without ever dipping into sugary sentimentality, the unique bond between human and dog. The effect is utterly charming. I was engaged from start to finish.”
John Grogan, author of Marley & Me and The Longest Trip Home

“Marcus of Umbria combines the personal journey of Eat, Pray, Love with the madcap adventures of Bridget Jones’s Diary, all on a farm with a dog. Justine van der Leun’s tales about love, adjusting to life in a faraway land, and losing her heart to the abandoned English pointer she rescues are warm, comic, and beautifully descriptive. I devoured this compassionate and sharply funny book in one sitting.”
Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

“Marcus of Umbria is pretty much a checklist of everything that makes memoirs so great. Innocently hilarious cultural misunderstandings? Check. Biting wit coupled with delightful self-awareness? Check. Learning that sometimes soul mates come with four legs and a cold nose? Check. Marcus of Umbria is a thoroughly absorbing adventure sure to captivate dog lovers everywhere.”
Jen Lancaster, author of Bitter is the New Black and My Fair Lazy

“If a book can be both charming and cool, sarcastic and romantic, and beautiful and real at the same time, then Marcus of Umbria is that book. Justine van der Leun’s witty descriptions of love (on two legs and four) in a small town in Italy are like flowers gracefully entwined with barbed wire. This is no dreamy, happily-ever-after fantasy; it’s so, so much better than that.”
Suzan Colón, author of Cherries in Winter

“This quirky story of love and adventure will appeal to anyone who’s dared everything and ended up not with what they thought they wanted, but with what they needed most. Marcus of Umbria offers unexpected delights from a winning narrator with a fresh voice and a tender heart.”
Dianne Hales, author of La Bella Lingua