February 2017
Beginner
352 pages
8h 28m
English
We’re deep in the heart of the Apennine Mountains in Italy. It’s dusk; the sun is setting over a farmhouse tucked away by itself at the end of a road. There we spy the farmer, a retired man in his late 60’s, walking with his 25-year-old granddaughter. In this particular corner of the world, it seems like things haven’t changed that much in the last 100 years. We move in closer so we can eavesdrop on their Italian conversation.
Grandfather: Well, I finally finished my doctoral thesis.
Woman: Way to go, Gramps!
Grandfather: Did my research at Indiana University.
Woman: Indiana?
Grandfather: Yup. IBM took the school’s library . . . and digitized it. So I could access it over the internet.
She cocks her ear to take this ...