Other Voices of Italy – serie

An author receives a mysterious e-mail begging her to tell the story of Clare of Assisi, the thirteenth-century Italian saint. At first annoyed by the request, the author begins to research Saint Clare and becomes captivated by her life. We too are transported into the strange and beautiful world of medieval Italy, witnessing the daily rituals of convent life. At the center of that life is Saint Clare, a subversive and compelling figure full of contradictions: a physically disabled woman who travels widely in her imagination, someone unforgivingly harsh to herself yet infinitely generous to the women she supervises, a practitioner of self-abnegation who nevertheless knows her own worth. A visionary who liberated herself from the chains of materialism and patriarchy, Saint Clare here becomes an inspirational figure for a new generation of readers.

An author receives a mysterious e-mail begging her to tell the story of Clare of Assisi, the thirteenth-century Italian saint. At first annoyed by the request, the author begins to research Saint Clare and becomes captivated by her life. We too are transported into the strange and beautiful world of medieval Italy, witnessing the daily rituals of convent life. At the center of that life is Saint Clare, a subversive and compelling figure full of contradictions: a physically disabled woman who travels widely in her imagination, someone unforgivingly harsh to herself yet infinitely generous to the women she supervises, a practitioner of self-abnegation who nevertheless knows her own worth. A visionary who liberated herself from the chains of materialism and patriarchy, Saint Clare here becomes an inspirational figure for a new generation of readers.

Many great writers have been fluent in multiple languages but have never been able to escape their mother tongue. Yet if a native language feels like home, an adopted language sometimes offers a hospitality one cannot find elsewhere.  My Language Is a Jealous Lover explores the plights and successes of authors who lived and wrote in languages other than their mother tongue, from Samuel Beckett and Vladimir Nabokov to Ágota Kristóf and Joseph Brodsky. Author Adrián N. Bravi weaves their stories in with his own experiences as an Argentinian-Italian, thinking and writing in the language of his new life while recalling that of his childhood. Bravi bears witness to the frustrations, the soul-searching, the pain, and the joys of embracing another language.

Tired of being scrutinized, criticized, and fetishized for her black skin, Cameroon-born scholar GeneviÈve Makaping turns the tables on Italy’s white majority, regarding them through the same unsparing gaze to which minorities have traditionally been subjected. As she candidly recounts her experiences-first across Africa and then as a migrant Black woman in Italy-Makaping describes acts of racist aggression that are wearying and degrading to encounter on a daily basis. She also offers her perspective on how various forms of inequality based on race, color, gender, and class feed off each other. Reversing the Gaze invites readers to confront the question of racism through the retelling of everyday occurrences that we might have experienced as victims, perpetrators, or witnesses.

Tired of being scrutinized, criticized, and fetishized for her black skin, Cameroon-born scholar GeneviÈve Makaping turns the tables on Italy’s white majority, regarding them through the same unsparing gaze to which minorities have traditionally been subjected. As she candidly recounts her experiences-first across Africa and then as a migrant Black woman in Italy-Makaping describes acts of racist aggression that are wearying and degrading to encounter on a daily basis. She also offers her perspective on how various forms of inequality based on race, color, gender, and class feed off each other. Reversing the Gaze invites readers to confront the question of racism through the retelling of everyday occurrences that we might have experienced as victims, perpetrators, or witnesses.

In this stirring memoir by a member of the first generation of LGBTQ+ activists in Italy, Porpora Marcasciano tells her story and shares the struggles and accomplishments of her fellow activists who achieved so much in the 1970s yet suffered devastating losses during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. AntoloGaia offers an insider’s look at the beginnings of the gay liberation movement in Italy and reveals how it was intimately intertwined with other forms of left-wing activism. At the same time, it powerfully conveys the queer joy of a young person from a small village first encountering the vibrant sexual minority communities of Naples, Bologna, and Rome. As Marcasciano starts to embrace her trans identity, she meets the famous anthropologist Pino Simonelli, who introduces her to Naples’s unique femminielli subculture and gives her the name Porporino, which she later shortens to Porpora. In keeping with this story of gender, sexual, and political discovery, AntoloGaia is the first piece of Italian life-writing to use gender-neutral and mixed-gender language.

In this stirring memoir by a member of the first generation of LGBTQ+ activists in Italy, Porpora Marcasciano tells her story and shares the struggles and accomplishments of her fellow activists who achieved so much in the 1970s yet suffered devastating losses during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. AntoloGaia offers an insider’s look at the beginnings of the gay liberation movement in Italy and reveals how it was intimately intertwined with other forms of left-wing activism. At the same time, it powerfully conveys the queer joy of a young person from a small village first encountering the vibrant sexual minority communities of Naples, Bologna, and Rome. As Marcasciano starts to embrace her trans identity, she meets the famous anthropologist Pino Simonelli, who introduces her to Naples’s unique femminielli subculture and gives her the name Porporino, which she later shortens to Porpora. In keeping with this story of gender, sexual, and political discovery, AntoloGaia is the first piece of Italian life-writing to use gender-neutral and mixed-gender language.

Growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, Shirin Ramzanali Fazel was immersed in the language and culture of Italy, Somalia’s former colonizer. Yet when she moved to Italy as a young mother in the 1970s, she discovered a country where immigrants and Muslims were viewed with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion­–where, even today, she and her children must seemingly prove they are Italian.   In Islam and Me, Fazel tells her story and shares the experiences of other Muslim women living in Italy, revealing the wide variety of Muslim identities and the common prejudices they encounter. Looking at Italian school textbooks, newspapers, and TV programs, she invites us to change the way Muslim immigrants, and especially women, are depicted in both news reports and scholarly research. Islam and Me is a meditation on our multireligious, multiethnic, and multilingual reality, as well as an exploration of how we might reimagine national culture and identity so that they become more diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist.

Growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, Shirin Ramzanali Fazel was immersed in the language and culture of Italy, Somalia’s former colonizer. Yet when she moved to Italy as a young mother in the 1970s, she discovered a country where immigrants and Muslims were viewed with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion­–where, even today, she and her children must seemingly prove they are Italian.   In Islam and Me, Fazel tells her story and shares the experiences of other Muslim women living in Italy, revealing the wide variety of Muslim identities and the common prejudices they encounter. Looking at Italian school textbooks, newspapers, and TV programs, she invites us to change the way Muslim immigrants, and especially women, are depicted in both news reports and scholarly research. Islam and Me is a meditation on our multireligious, multiethnic, and multilingual reality, as well as an exploration of how we might reimagine national culture and identity so that they become more diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist.

A young wife in a nineteenth-century Sicilian village, Marta is deeply in love with her husband Rocco and pregnant with his child. But when Rocco discovers a letter written to Marta by a would-be suitor, he falsely accuses her of infidelity and banishes her from their home. Soon the whole village turns against the supposed adulteress, setting in motion a series of tragic events that culminates in the loss of Marta’s family home and business, as well as the deaths of her father and newborn child. Plunged into poverty and treated as a social leper, with practically nothing else to lose, Marta is determined to claw her way back into a society bent on excluding her.   The Outcast is an early masterwork from Nobel Prize–winning Italian author Luigi Pirandello that combines elements of Zolaesque naturalism with emerging modernist aesthetics. This fresh English translation, the first in nearly one hundred years, showcases Pirandello’s deft play with language and his use of irony.This book was translated thanks to a grant awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

A young wife in a nineteenth-century Sicilian village, Marta is deeply in love with her husband Rocco and pregnant with his child. But when Rocco discovers a letter written to Marta by a would-be suitor, he falsely accuses her of infidelity and banishes her from their home. Soon the whole village turns against the supposed adulteress, setting in motion a series of tragic events that culminates in the loss of Marta’s family home and business, as well as the deaths of her father and newborn child. Plunged into poverty and treated as a social leper, with practically nothing else to lose, Marta is determined to claw her way back into a society bent on excluding her.   The Outcast is an early masterwork from Nobel Prize–winning Italian author Luigi Pirandello that combines elements of Zolaesque naturalism with emerging modernist aesthetics. This fresh English translation, the first in nearly one hundred years, showcases Pirandello’s deft play with language and his use of irony.This book was translated thanks to a grant awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Leyla is a headstrong Brooklyn-born art historian at a prestigious upstate New York college. When she meets feckless young computer technician Pablo at a party, she quickly becomes pregnant with his child. There’s only one problem: she can’t stand him. And one more problem: her student Michael wants Pablo for himself.Amid this love triangle, the objects of Leyla and Michael’s study take on a life of their own. Trying to learn more about Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Seven Works of Mercy, they pore over the journal and prison writings of maverick 17th-century utopian philosopher Tommaso Campanella, which, as if by enchantment, transport them back four centuries to Naples. And while the past and present miraculously converge, Leyla, Michael, and Tommaso embark on a voyage of self-discovery in search of a new life.  In this fusion of historical, queer, and speculative fiction, Alessandro Giardino combines the intellectual playfulness of Umberto Eco with the psychological finesse of Michael Cunningham.

Leyla is a headstrong Brooklyn-born art historian at a prestigious upstate New York college. When she meets feckless young computer technician Pablo at a party, she quickly becomes pregnant with his child. There’s only one problem: she can’t stand him. And one more problem: her student Michael wants Pablo for himself.Amid this love triangle, the objects of Leyla and Michael’s study take on a life of their own. Trying to learn more about Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Seven Works of Mercy, they pore over the journal and prison writings of maverick 17th-century utopian philosopher Tommaso Campanella, which, as if by enchantment, transport them back four centuries to Naples. And while the past and present miraculously converge, Leyla, Michael, and Tommaso embark on a voyage of self-discovery in search of a new life.  In this fusion of historical, queer, and speculative fiction, Alessandro Giardino combines the intellectual playfulness of Umberto Eco with the psychological finesse of Michael Cunningham.

Christ’s nemesis Judas Iscariot remains a shadowy figure in the four canonical gospels, which give contradictory reasons for why this rogue disciple betrays Christ. But how would Judas himself explain his motives?   In Glory, Italian modernist Giuseppe Berto’s final novel, Judas finally tells his side of the story. From his perspective, Jesus is the betrayer, a would-be political activist and social reformer who fails to live up to his promises. And by fulfilling his predestined role in the drama of Christ’s death and resurrection, Judas himself is partly responsible for humanity’s salvation, enabling them to be redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice. As the novel probes into the psychological motivations behind his rejection of Jesus’ authority, Judas emerges as a compelling conflicted character, a man who seeks to have agency even when he knows his actions are being scripted by a higher power. Through Judas’s searing tortured monologues, this late masterpiece from one of Italy’s greatest writers investigates deep questions about the nature of faith, rebellion, fate, and free will.

Christ’s nemesis Judas Iscariot remains a shadowy figure in the four canonical gospels, which give contradictory reasons for why this rogue disciple betrays Christ. But how would Judas himself explain his motives?   In Glory, Italian modernist Giuseppe Berto’s final novel, Judas finally tells his side of the story. From his perspective, Jesus is the betrayer, a would-be political activist and social reformer who fails to live up to his promises. And by fulfilling his predestined role in the drama of Christ’s death and resurrection, Judas himself is partly responsible for humanity’s salvation, enabling them to be redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice. As the novel probes into the psychological motivations behind his rejection of Jesus’ authority, Judas emerges as a compelling conflicted character, a man who seeks to have agency even when he knows his actions are being scripted by a higher power. Through Judas’s searing tortured monologues, this late masterpiece from one of Italy’s greatest writers investigates deep questions about the nature of faith, rebellion, fate, and free will.

Three generations of women live together under the same roof. Though they are united by blood, each of the Cascadei women has a very different personality and way of expressing herself. Teenage daughter Lori scribbles impulsively in her diary, so eager to speed off on her moped that she rarely bothers with punctuation. Mother Maria, a professional translator, writes detailed and observant letters yet doesn’t see what is happening right in front of her. And grandmother Gesuina, a former stage actress, speaks into an audio recorder, giving a provocative and brutally candid performance for an imagined audience that might never listen.   Life, Brazen and Garish offers a fresh take on the epistolary novel, telling the story of a family through the fragmented and disparate perspectives of daughter, mother, and grandmother. Yet even as each woman endures her private struggles with love and betrayal, youth and maturity, knowledge and ignorance, reality and illusion, the Cascadeis forge a solidarity that transcends generations. In turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, this novel is a triumph of narrative voice and literary style from one of Italy’s most renowned writers.Questo libro È stato tradotto grazie a un contributo del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale italiano.This book has been translated thanks to a contribution from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Three generations of women live together under the same roof. Though they are united by blood, each of the Cascadei women has a very different personality and way of expressing herself. Teenage daughter Lori scribbles impulsively in her diary, so eager to speed off on her moped that she rarely bothers with punctuation. Mother Maria, a professional translator, writes detailed and observant letters yet doesn’t see what is happening right in front of her. And grandmother Gesuina, a former stage actress, speaks into an audio recorder, giving a provocative and brutally candid performance for an imagined audience that might never listen.   Life, Brazen and Garish offers a fresh take on the epistolary novel, telling the story of a family through the fragmented and disparate perspectives of daughter, mother, and grandmother. Yet even as each woman endures her private struggles with love and betrayal, youth and maturity, knowledge and ignorance, reality and illusion, the Cascadeis forge a solidarity that transcends generations. In turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, this novel is a triumph of narrative voice and literary style from one of Italy’s most renowned writers.Questo libro È stato tradotto grazie a un contributo del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale italiano.This book has been translated thanks to a contribution from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Today, the Ludovisi district is one of Rome’s most luxurious neighborhoods, home to famous restaurants and some of the most expensive shops in the city. But it was once private property, part of an eighty-six-acre villa owned by the Boncompagni Ludovisis, an ancient noble family with close ties to the papacy. The story of how the palazzo fell out of the family's hands reveals the tremendous social upheavals that Italy underwent following its mid-nineteenth-century unification.  First privately published in 1921, The Twilight of Rome's Papal Nobility provides an intimate look at a family who grew up accustomed to almost unimaginable wealth, power, and glamour. A descendant of two popes, Ugo Boncompagni Ludovisi recounts the life story of his mother Agnese, who was raised in a palace full of priceless artwork, including pieces by Caravaggio and Michelangelo. We get a window into Agnese's private life-her girlhood, marriage, and raising of several children-as her public life becomes increasingly tumultuous amid the family’s struggles to retain its property. A tender elegy to a bygone era, Boncompagni Ludovisi's story provides a unique perspective on Italian history and Rome’s urban redevelopment.

Today, the Ludovisi district is one of Rome’s most luxurious neighborhoods, home to famous restaurants and some of the most expensive shops in the city. But it was once private property, part of an eighty-six-acre villa owned by the Boncompagni Ludovisis, an ancient noble family with close ties to the papacy. The story of how the palazzo fell out of the family's hands reveals the tremendous social upheavals that Italy underwent following its mid-nineteenth-century unification.  First privately published in 1921, The Twilight of Rome's Papal Nobility provides an intimate look at a family who grew up accustomed to almost unimaginable wealth, power, and glamour. A descendant of two popes, Ugo Boncompagni Ludovisi recounts the life story of his mother Agnese, who was raised in a palace full of priceless artwork, including pieces by Caravaggio and Michelangelo. We get a window into Agnese's private life-her girlhood, marriage, and raising of several children-as her public life becomes increasingly tumultuous amid the family’s struggles to retain its property. A tender elegy to a bygone era, Boncompagni Ludovisi's story provides a unique perspective on Italian history and Rome’s urban redevelopment.

Growing up in 1990s Russia in a family marked by poverty, substance abuse, and neglect, Kola and his sister are eventually admitted into the orphanage system. Here, Kola comes face to face with a different but equally daunting challenge: navigating an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile world haunted by the absence of his mother. The ensuing journey, which eventually culminates in the adoption by an Italian family, alternates moments of both trauma and deliverance, while asking fundamental questions about our ability to reconcile ourselves with unfathomable loss. Harrowing yet lyrical, Nikolai Prestia's prize-winning 2021 novel is a testament to the duality of memory in its ability to both hurt and heal, and to the transformative power of those figures, adults and peers alike, who contribute to a child's development. Translated into English as part of a collaboration between the author and a mother-daughter translator duo, the novel serves up a wrenching glimpse into the back stories that often precede the adoption of an older child.

Growing up in 1990s Russia in a family marked by poverty, substance abuse, and neglect, Kola and his sister are eventually admitted into the orphanage system. Here, Kola comes face to face with a different but equally daunting challenge: navigating an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile world haunted by the absence of his mother. The ensuing journey, which eventually culminates in the adoption by an Italian family, alternates moments of both trauma and deliverance, while asking fundamental questions about our ability to reconcile ourselves with unfathomable loss. Harrowing yet lyrical, Nikolai Prestia's prize-winning 2021 novel is a testament to the duality of memory in its ability to both hurt and heal, and to the transformative power of those figures, adults and peers alike, who contribute to a child's development. Translated into English as part of a collaboration between the author and a mother-daughter translator duo, the novel serves up a wrenching glimpse into the back stories that often precede the adoption of an older child.

The Black Body is the story of Anna Maria Gehnyei, also known as singer Karima 2G. Anna was born in Rome to Liberian parents, hailing from the Kpelle people -- among the first to leave their native lands for Europe. Despite being born Italian, the people of northern Rome treated her poorly: children made cruel jokes, the teachers ignored the needs of Anna and her twin, employers expressed shock at her prolific (in fact, native) Italian, policemen racially and sexually harassed her. Carrying her through these experiences are the stories about Liberia that her mother told her as a child, of a magical land rich in resources and the hidden rituals of her father's village. Anna Maria, a Black Roman child, dreams of Africa.The Black Body tells the story of a Black girl's coming of age, marked by continual, painful negotiation of two cultures: the Italian one which does not accept her and the African one to which she does not fully belong. Gehnyei's is the story of a generation made up of those who are seen only as immigrant children, and not as full citizens. Composed of memories, sounds, love, and shame, this political and personal memoir, creatively documenting the increased sophistication of the young Anna Maria's thinking as she grows from girl, to teen, to woman, has been translated into English for the first time by Eilis Kierans and Sandra Waters.

The Black Body is the story of Anna Maria Gehnyei, also known as singer Karima 2G. Anna was born in Rome to Liberian parents, hailing from the Kpelle people -- among the first to leave their native lands for Europe. Despite being born Italian, the people of northern Rome treated her poorly: children made cruel jokes, the teachers ignored the needs of Anna and her twin, employers expressed shock at her prolific (in fact, native) Italian, policemen racially and sexually harassed her. Carrying her through these experiences are the stories about Liberia that her mother told her as a child, of a magical land rich in resources and the hidden rituals of her father's village. Anna Maria, a Black Roman child, dreams of Africa.The Black Body tells the story of a Black girl's coming of age, marked by continual, painful negotiation of two cultures: the Italian one which does not accept her and the African one to which she does not fully belong. Gehnyei's is the story of a generation made up of those who are seen only as immigrant children, and not as full citizens. Composed of memories, sounds, love, and shame, this political and personal memoir, creatively documenting the increased sophistication of the young Anna Maria's thinking as she grows from girl, to teen, to woman, has been translated into English for the first time by Eilis Kierans and Sandra Waters.

Giuliana Striano is forty years old and lives in Cape Town, South Africa. She is the daughter of Italian emigrants with a daughter of her own, Renata, now five years old. Upon the death of her mother, Giuliana learns that she had been adopted and given a new identity with a different name and a different date and place of birth. So Giuliana determines to find out who she really is, what is hidden in her past, and who her birth parents were. Her Name That Day the story of "another" Italy set in a region that only recently became Italian and whose characters are Croatian, Slovenian, Australian, and South African, as well as Italians, precariously perched in a border community filled with secrets and scores to settle with History. Against this backdrop, the narrator endeavors to save a woman encountered by chance on the internet from becoming still another name without a history, another deracinated and disenchanted individual. In prose that is precise and engaging, as though shot through by a sense of pain both silent and inescapable, Pietro Spirito gives shape to an existential thriller in which there are neither guilty parties nor heroes, only victims and survivors.

Giuliana Striano is forty years old and lives in Cape Town, South Africa. She is the daughter of Italian emigrants with a daughter of her own, Renata, now five years old. Upon the death of her mother, Giuliana learns that she had been adopted and given a new identity with a different name and a different date and place of birth. So Giuliana determines to find out who she really is, what is hidden in her past, and who her birth parents were. Her Name That Day the story of "another" Italy set in a region that only recently became Italian and whose characters are Croatian, Slovenian, Australian, and South African, as well as Italians, precariously perched in a border community filled with secrets and scores to settle with History. Against this backdrop, the narrator endeavors to save a woman encountered by chance on the internet from becoming still another name without a history, another deracinated and disenchanted individual. In prose that is precise and engaging, as though shot through by a sense of pain both silent and inescapable, Pietro Spirito gives shape to an existential thriller in which there are neither guilty parties nor heroes, only victims and survivors.

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.