I breezed through this and Solitude of Prime Numbers in the last week or so.

The two books have similarities. Delicate relationships that progress incrementally or not at all. Characters who rarely say what they mean, holding back and exercising prudence in all things.

I preferred this novel for its brevity without levity. I never fail to be impressed with how much you can say (or show in art) with a few words (or lines in drawing). 4-5 lines can make a tree, a symbol we all know. This book took 146 pages and showed us 4 lives (5 if you count Renato). What does cancer do to a marriage? How does a nanny care for herself in the face of a terminal diagnosis? It's sparse but shaded in the right areas. It reaches for breadth but doesn't lose critical depth. It could be tempting to either expound on cancer for 600 pages the way The Emperor of all Maladies is. Or to breeze over it and miss details.

I think Prime Numbers has a more interesting character study but I found the subject matter of Family more compelling. Paolo speaks of the mundane but mundane is real and true. There's value in reproducing that.