The Today Show invited New York TImes bestselling author Brad Thor to choose his five must-read books for the end of the summer. Selecting one book each for five literary genres - "last taste of summer", thriller, pop culture, historical, and children's - Professor di Robilant's Autumn in Venice was his pick for the historical category. A self-professed Hemingway fan, Thor said of the book that he "loved it" and "couldn't put it down". Thor enthused about the book to viewers, describing it as "Filled with passion, adventure, heartache and warmth".

Autumn in Venice tells of Hemingway's first visit to Venice with his fourth wife in the fall of 1948, when the author was about to turn fifty and had not published a novel in almost a decade. It was in Venice that he met and fell in love with Adriana Ivancich, a striking Venetian girl just out of finishing school, who would inspire him to complete his great final work The Old Man and the Sea. It is a story of writer and muse, one which examines the cost for Adriana of her association with Hemingway and takes an intimate look at Hemingway’s final years.

Congratulations to Professor di Robilant for this feature!