The Hummingbird

About the book

Source: the novel The Hummingbird (Il colibrì). Author: Sandro Veronesi. Goodreads page: The Hummingbird — Il colibrì: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53137958-the-hummingbird The novel spans several decades of Marco Carrera’s life (nicknamed “the Hummingbird”) and is told through a mosaic-like structure—shifting time blocks, memories, conversations, and written exchanges—where identity is revealed via recurring encounters, separations, family fractures, and the effort to stay emotionally “upright” despite upheavals. At its core is Marco’s enduring bond with Luisa, carried through the years alongside his marriage to Marina and a sequence of losses and moments of clarity.

About the author

Sandro Veronesi is an Italian novelist; The Hummingbird is among his best-known later works, combining intimate psychological focus with the breadth of a family saga.

How closely the adaptation follows the book

The adaptation broadly preserves the novel’s central pillars: Marco (“the Hummingbird”), the long-running connection with Luisa, the parallel family storyline, and the overarching idea of life as a pattern of reunions, missteps, and revelations. However, the novel’s distinctive literary form—its fragmented, document-like montage and strongly non-linear construction—cannot be fully replicated on screen, so the story is necessarily compressed, some temporal shifts are streamlined, and certain emotional beats become more direct. The core relationships and themes remain recognizable, while the book’s formal polyphony is only partially retained.