A pensive, beautifully written meditation on personhood and nationhood in the new age of European unity. […] Many of the characters in this joined collection—something more than short stories but not quite a novel—are stateless and uprooted; they come from somewhere else, and they’re never quite at home where they are. […] A pleasure [...] for fans of modern European literature.

Exposing memory for the fiction it is, these wonderful stories produce a melancholic nostalgia even as they undermine it.

This splendid collection of stories by Antonio Tabucchi, one of Italy's most original and admired writers, is a delight to read. Tabucchi's fertile and offbeat imagination ranges over a broad spectrum of themes—family, aging, war, travel—always approached obliquely, teasing, engaging, and above all rewarding the reader. The translation by Martha Cooley and Antonio Romani is acutely sensitive to the rhythms of Tabucchi's fluid sentences and the uncanny nature of his sensibility.

There is in Tabucchi’s stories the touch of the true magician, who astonishes us by never trying too hard for his subtle, elusive, and remarkable effects.

Tabucchi’s work has an almost palpable sympathy for the oppressed.

Tabucchi’s prose creates a deep, near-profound and sometimes heart-wrenching nostalgia and constantly evokes the pain of recognizing the speed of life’s passing which everyone knows but few have the strength to accept … Wonderfully thought-provoking and beautiful.

Poetic and prophetic… I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories, all having central characters reliving an important, and life changing memory. The reflection upon time and place captured in a melancholic style with depth of clarity around quite simple everyday occurrences.

Each of Tabucchi’s pieces feels like a treasure, a small gift or sweet to be unwrapped gleefully... This was an author who understood that a great part of life is spent not doing but envisioning what one could do and remembering what one has done. Time Ages in a Hurry is a collection that showcases not only Tabucchi’s intelligence but also his wisdom.

Tabucchi’s stories in Time Ages in a Hurry are careful, nuanced, and smartly skeptical of memory and experience.

As with all fine writers, it is remarkable how the same themes surface effortlessly in Tabucchi’s work even when the material is quite new. In particular there is an engaging dialogue between two Italians under sunshades on a Croatian beach: a sick man in his forties and a precocious young girl... The entire conversation unfolds with great charm, playfulness, and decorum in a summery Mediterranean haze. It is a welcome return to Tabucchi at his best.

Tabucchi presumes, as only a masterly writer can, to peer in on a core... History, personal or collective, weighs on everyone in these stories, sculpting their inner lives. And yet, Tabucchi suggests, an unlikely transcendence is possible.

Poignant, philosophical... Tabucchi has done the seemingly impossible with this collection: in an era of fast-paced plots, Tabucchi’s characters, language, and very form force readers to pause and reflect on one small, powerful moment. It’s a pleasure each step of the way.

Fluid and airy... Contemplative and without affection, these stories would be well accompanied by a wistful gaze out a window – an enjoyable memento mori on a warm summer day which will soon fade into all the others.

...rich, well balanced, understated, and beautiful.

I found myself cheered by [Tabucchi's] rich, occlusive writing, filled with flecks of gold, panning the river bottom of our lives, finding here and there scintillating bits, some deviously interesting characters, all deftly laid out on the page.

Tabucchi, forever returning to the well of saudade—that resonant Portuguese term for nostalgia—might line up most closely with W.G. Sebald, trying to read significance in the rubble of Holocausts large and small. Wherever we place this author, though, Time Ages In a Hurry must rank as one of his signal accomplishments.