Written largely in the form of letters, Happiness, As Such is about a family in Italy in the 1970s. The son, Michele, has moved to England for political reasons, and his mother and sisters are all pretty lost without him. Not a lot happens, but Ginzburg is great at setting you down right in the middle of the action and painting a vivid slice-of-life portrait of her characters. Even if I couldn’t relate directly to what they were going through, I could feel it. The tone at times is funny in a Wes Anderson sort of way, but there’s also a healthy dose of melancholy here—a winter book to be sure.