Roses for Gramsci

Andy Merrifield

Roses for Gramsci is a remarkable personal journey through the life and writings of the great Sardinian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci. In summer of 2023, author Andy Merrifield and his family move from the UK to Rome to begin a new life. Soon after his arrival, the author visits Gramsci’s grave and decides to take a volunteer position helping to maintain the cemetery. At the Non-Catholic Cemetery, home also to the great Romantics, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, he keeps a watchful eye on Gramsci’s tombstone, talking to some of his visitors, admiring the roses and notes that Gramsci’s guests leave, and communing with the sentinel cat that keeps watch near the gravesite. Thus begins Merrifield’s deep dive into Gramsci’s life almost a century after his death. The result is a stunning portrait that offers fresh insights into nearly every aspect of Gramsci’s often tortured...