Timira: A Novel tells the story of Isabella Marincola, a Black Italian born in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1925. Her father, Giuseppe, was an Italian official, her mother was his lover, Ashkiro Hassan, a Somali woman. Giuseppe recognized the paternity of Isabella, allowing her to be an Italian citizen. Throughout her life, Isabella—known also by her Somali name, Timira—faced various manifestations of racism and sexism. While she grew up, she was not told she was Black. Her parents had explained that her skin color was the result of the Mogadishu sun. As a young adult, she posed for painters and sculptors, who exoticized her Black body. And when she returned from her years in Somalia to Italy, her Black skin led her into racist confrontations with Italian state bureaucracy, reluctant and ill-equipped to grant a Black Italian citizen the rights and services that white Italian citizens enjoyed. Through Isabella, the novel reflects on the nature of italianità and the ongoing challenge that Italy's colonial past and post-colonial present pose to a predominantly and culturally white European nation.
