The Leopard, by Giovanni Tomasi Di Lampedusa

If you'd suggested a book about what happens to the landed gentry during the re-unification of Italy, I'd have rejected it. In fact, the group rejected it many times until Angus persuaded us to read The Leopard, by Giovanni Di Lampedusa. Set in Sicily when Garibaldi and Cavour are re-unifying Italy it's about more than its time. It's a stoic description of how the world changes around a wry and ageing aristocrat. How families go their own way, what you have left at the end of your life... and what happens after you go. Simply marvellous!