Description
“Frazzetto uses psychology, neurology and biological information to explore the ways in which intimacy manifests in different types of relationships. He recounts the stories of eight relationships. . . . Each story puts intimacy and how we experience it on display.” —Concepción De León, The New York Times
“Together, Closer examines the way humans relate to each other across a spectrum of relationships from parent-child to platonic friendships and, of course, romantic love.” —The Guardian
“An ambitious project . . . Giovanni Frazzetto marries science with art, the most recent discoveries of neuroscience with human stories about intimacy. . . . A clear love of art and science shines from the book.” —The Irish Times
For readers of Oliver Sacks and Stephen Grosz, a wondrous, deeply felt book that explores intimacy through the stories of eight relationships, from the author of Joy, Guilt, Anger, Love
The bonds we are capable of feeling toward other people—how we know and belong to one another—provide fascinating glimpses into the intricacies of human behavior. Intimacy is that moment when our true identity is revealed to another, when traumas, fears, and ambitions are shared. Through the ordinary stories of eight relationships, Giovanni Frazzetto has woven an extraordinary narrative of togetherness. He shares the details of romantic partners trapped in a long cycle of attraction and rejection, a single woman who finds herself deep in a fictional relationship with a boyfriend she has invented out of frustration with her love life, and a couple absorbed in a years-long clandestine affair. But intimacy can also extend beyond romantic encounters: coping with the loss of a loved one, dealing with overbearing or emotionally distant parents, or celebrating the joys and comforts of our dearest friends.
In Together, Closer, Frazzetto unravels the components of intimacy in all of these relationships, illuminating the mysteries, challenges, and pleasures of intimacy through a brilliant mix of storytelling and science.
About the Author
Giovanni Frazzetto grew up on the South-East coast of Sicily. After high school, he moved to the UK to study science at University College London and in 2002 he received a PhD from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. In his work, Giovanni connects literature and science. He has contributed to the international magazines Nature and Science and has written for Haaretz, the Irish Times, the Financial Times, Village Magazine, the Huffingtom Post and Psychology Today.In 2008, for his cross-disciplinary and science communication efforts he was awarded the John Kendrew Young Scientist Award. Giovanni loves the sea, cooking, multimedia storytelling, whistling and learning foreign languages. He is fluent in Italian, German and French, and has conversational Portuguese, Greek and Russian and basic Hebrew. He has started to learn Irish. He is not good at giving street directions.He now lives in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland.