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Without warning or a word of explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother, and deprivation. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self. Told with an immediacy and a rare expressive intensity that has earned it countless adoring readers and one of Italy's most prestigious literary prizes, A Girl Returned is a powerful novel rendered with sensitivity and verve by Ann Goldstein, translator of the works of Elena Ferrante. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving, pitch-perfect in Ann Goldstein's English translation.
Moving and unsentimental story of inner reconstruction after a devastating lossShortlisted for the prestigious Premio Strega in Italy in 2014, this is the story of a broken family coming to terms, in the aftermath of the earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009, with the loss of one of them - a twin sister, a daughter, a mother - while living in temporary accommodation on the outskirts of the city. The terse and clean voice of the spiky, single, thirty-something female narrator wards off sentimentality while guiding us through the inner reconstruction undertaken by each character individually and by the family as a whole, letting us witness the extraordinary poetic power of love and the renewal of hope.
The sensitive and powerful story of the love between a mother and her daughter, a love "e;gone wrong from the start"e;. When Esperia exhibits the symptoms of dementia, her daughter takes care of her and help her to rebuild her disintegrating identity. Day after day we learn about the characters of the extended family, the small village still without running water or electricity, in a "e;bright and harsh"e; Abruzzo.
Vincenzo Malinconico is a wildly unsuccessful lawyer who spends most of his time at the office trying to look busy. His wife has left him. His teenage children worry him to death. And he suffers from a chronic inability to control his sentence structure. When he is asked to fill in as the public defender for alleged Mafioso Mimmo lo Burzone, Malinconico seizes the opportunity to turn his life around. Without dwelling too long on what it might mean to be employed by the mob, he rushes to re-learn the Italian criminal code, all the while attempting to resist any further advances from his employers. Malinconico's life becomes a comical battle to finish what he has started without falling further into the clutches of the mafia. I Hadn't Understood is one of the subtlest and most cunning accounts of the mafia's influence on everyday life in recent decades. And it is certainly the most entertaining. Written with a neurotic's love of detail and wry humor, I Hadn't Understood is an engaging story of family, fatherhood, and the perils of navigating the Italian legal system.
"Elena Ferrante has established herself as the foremost writer in Italy - and the world." THE SUNDAY TIMES A delightful collection of original essays on reading and writing. From the internationally acclaimed author of My Brilliant Friend, The Lying Life of Adults, and The Lost Daughter, come four revelatory pieces offering rare insight into the author's formation as a writer and life as a reader. Ferrante warns us of the perils of "bad language"—historically alien to the truth of women—and advocates for a collective fusion of female talent as she brilliantly discourses on the work of her most beloved authors. A delightful collection of essays exploring reading and writing from the internationally acclaimed author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lying Life of Adults. Ferrante's writing has been described as compulsive ( The Times) and astonishing ( Guardian), her novels have sold millions and been translated into many languages as well as adapted for TV internationally.
The story of a young girl and her family, at the core of an exploration of Iranian history. WINNER: Prix du Style, Prix de la Porte Dorée, Lire Best Debut Novel, Le Prix du Roman News. Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five, with a new life and the prospect of a child, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which reach her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them. In this high-spirited, kaleidoscopic story, key moments of Iranian history, politics, and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph. Yet it is Kimiâ herself—punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own “disorientalization”—who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel.
WINNER OF THE 2024 STREGA PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2024 YOUTH STREGA PRIZE Acclaimed Italian author Donatella Di Pietrantonio's best-selling novel to date, The Brittle Age is a powerful mother and daughter story and a profound exploration of human fragility and the haunting shadows of the past In the 1990s, deep in the Maiella mountains of Central Italy, a brutal crime shatters the peace of the local community. Two young women are murdered, a third left for dead. Lucia is twenty years old back, and the only survivor is her best friend. Now, Lucia is a physiotherapist, separating from her husband, her daughter Amanda studying in Milan. When the pandemic forces Amanda to return to the family's home near Pescara, Lucia's memories are reawakened, and with them the impact of past trauma. Set against the backdrop of the rugged Apennine mountains, this gripping psychological family drama weaves Lucia and Amanda's personal struggles with the mystery of the tragedy that marked their familial land decades earlier. Inspired by true events, The Brittle Age is a tale of individual resilience, and a commentary on the indelible impact of historical events on personal lives and the broader community.
A sumptuously romantic story bursting with historical colour and flavour, perfect for readers of Dinah Jefferies, Lucinda Riley and Jenny Ashcroft. 'Romantic, engaging and hugely satisfying' Katie Fford on The Apothecary's Daughter ***** Italy, 1819. Emilia Barton and her mother Sarah live a nomadic existence, travelling from town to town as itinerant dressmakers to escape their past. When they settle in the idyllic coastal town of Pesaro, Emilia desperately hopes that, this time, they have found a permanent home. But when Sarah is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant, a deathbed confession turns Emilia's world upside down. Seeking refuge as a dressmaker in the eccentric household of Pr...
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF FALL 2021 Following the international success of Ties and the National Book Award-shortlisted Trick, Domenico Starnone gives readers another searing portrait of human relationships and human folly. Pietro and Teresa’s love affair is tempestuous and passionate. After yet another terrible argument, she gets an idea: they should tell each other something they’ve never told another person, something they’re too ashamed to tell anyone. They will hear the other’s confessions without judgment and with love in their hearts. In this way, Teresa thinks, they will remain united forever, more intimately connected than ever. A few days after sharing their shameful secre...
The second title in de Giovanni's new series set in contemporary Naples. A child is kidnapped. A high-class apartment is burgled. The two crimes seem to have no connection at all until Inspector Lojacono, known as "the Chinaman", starts to investigate. De Giovanni is one of the most dexterous and successful writers of crime fiction currently working in Italy. His award winning and bestselling novels, all set in Naples, offer a brilliant vision of the criminal underworld and the police that battle it in Europe's most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city. The Bastards of Pizzofalcone is a new series set in contemporary Naples that draws inspiration from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels and features a large cast of cops doing battle with ruthless criminals, as well as their own demons.