Rachel Donadio Leaving Times Book Review to Become Rome Bureau Chief

Back in early June, Rachel Donadio wrote an item for The New York Times' Papercuts blog about a vacation she'd taken in Rome. The long-planned trip meant that Ms. Donadio, an editor at the Times Book Review who regularly contributes essays on various literary topics to the section's back page, could not attend Book Expo America, the publishing industry's annual trade show that was happening at the same time.

You might say Ms. Donadio had chosen Rome over books that week!

Now she's doing it again, this time for keeps. According to an e-mail she sent to friends this morning, Ms. Donadio (a former Observer reporter) is leaving the Book Review and relocating around Labor Day to Italy full time to serve as The Times' Rome Bureau Chief. The move will be a homecoming for Ms. Donadio, who lived in Rome during the 90s and has traveled there extensively.

In the e-mail she said she'd miss focusing on literary life, but is excited to start her new beat. Her first assignment will be to trail the Pope to Paris and Lourdes.