“Caterina is alone. How alone, Maria’s bed next to her tells her. She falls asleep on it.”
A book you’ll never put down: and it’s exactly what you’re looking for. A writer who emerges in the Italian cultural landscape like an island in the ocean, ready to rescue disillusioned shipwrecked sailors.
A gripping story, but not because the plot is particularly intricate or full of twists and turns: quite the opposite. What keeps you glued to the page is the pervasive fascination each character inspires. Let’s dive back in time to the beginning of the last century. Let’s return to that peasant life that must inevitably follow the rhythms of nature; let’s return to that Verga-esque ideal of the oyster man that existed and still exists, struggling against everything and remaining anchored to the same point.
We are on a small island in the Aeolian archipelago, and no island seems more isolated than this one, as do its inhabitants, who for some time remained attached to ancient beliefs already disused on the mainland (such as whispering in the ear of the dead the words to be passed on to long-dead relatives).
How can we help you understand the characters’ charm? Let’s use a symbol, perhaps a very Sicilian flavor: a sun-dried tomato. Think of its flavor, somewhere between acid and bitter, and that dryness that is its main characteristic. It seems shabby and unappealing, yet… it has that aftertaste that makes you taste all the hard work of the earth and the sun behind it. This is the meaning of these characters torn between earth and sun, between sun and tears, between tears and the hope of flying and leaving that island to find life, food, justice, and freedom.
We don’t want to tell you much about the plot because it will be a pleasant surprise, but we can tell you the narrative is inspired by true events that occurred during a period of famine, when hunger drove many people to eat “devil’s bread.”
Are you sufficiently intrigued? Then you’re ready to be enchanted by the final pages, which will fly by like the women of the island.
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Marta Lamalfa, L’isola dove volano le femmine, Neri Pozza, Vicenza, 2024