Description
Forced back to her remote hometown by the war, Giulia is immediately drawn to a couple in a similar situation: graceful, spontaneous Ada and her husband Paolo, a sickly teacher and partisan in hiding. Joined from Turin by Giulia's husband Stefano, the two couples form an intense bond; as the Germans begin to occupy Italy, a subtle dance of attractions begins, intensified by their shared isolation and the muffled hum of threat over a long, hard winter. In prose of subtle, enigmatic atmospheres and acutely precise images, Lalla Romano evokes both the tension and the stillness of life in occupied Italy. Translated into English for the first time, A Silence Shared is a captivating classic novel that inhabits the silent spaces between historic events, depicting the mysterious luminosity of human relationships in extraordinary circumstances.
About the Author
Graziella 'Lalla' Romano (1906-2001) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and visual artist. Initially more interested in painting, from the 1940s Romano turned increasingly to writing, publishing her first poetry collection in 1941. During World War II she returned to her home province of Cuneo and became involved with the partisans. Her first novel, Maria, was published in 1953, and she went on to become one of Italy's most renowned writers, earning the Pavese Prize and the Strega Prize before her death at the age of 94.
Reviews
"Thanks to this new translation... another unveiling of a great Italian writer is about to begin... Her writing fascinates because so much of it circles around how we construct and remember the lives we lead, those moments and elements that are mysterious and impossible to communicate."
--Los Angeles Review of Books
"Her work deserves to be read alongside other titans of 20th-century Italian literature such as Natalia Ginzburg, Cesare Pavese and Italo Calvino (all of whom knew and revered her)... Told with magnificent restraint, and without the tensions ever breaking the novel's serene, crystalline structure, A Silence Shared is a wonderful taste of Romano's work."
--The Spectator
"When a book is praised by three of Italy's greatest 20th-century writers - Giorgio Bassani, Italo Calvino and Natalia Ginzburg - you pay attention... through short scenes and spare dialogue, Romano successfully creates a mood of stasis, anticipation and guilt."
--The Guardian
"Reading this beguiling book was not unlike watching light and shadow complicate the surface of a still, deep pool of summer water. Hats off to Brian Robert Moore for the stunning translation."
--Sunjeev Sahota, Lithub
"Exquisite."
--Irish Times
"Romano writes in a dreamlike present, which is to say the present that appears to us in dreams... clear and full of shadows, concrete and out of reach."
--Natalia Ginzburg
"A subtle and captivating story... An incredibly complex and tough knot of human ties, [explored] with a heightened sensitivity that never falters."
--Italo Calvino
Book Information
ISBN 9781782278207
Author Lalla Romano
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Pushkin Press
Publisher Pushkin Press
About the Author
Graziella 'Lalla' Romano (1906-2001) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and visual artist. Initially more interested in painting, from the 1940s Romano turned increasingly to writing, publishing her first poetry collection in 1941. During World War II she returned to her home province of Cuneo and became involved with the partisans. Her first novel, Maria, was published in 1953, and she went on to become one of Italy's most renowned writers, earning the Pavese Prize and the Strega Prize before her death at the age of 94.
Reviews
"Thanks to this new translation... another unveiling of a great Italian writer is about to begin... Her writing fascinates because so much of it circles around how we construct and remember the lives we lead, those moments and elements that are mysterious and impossible to communicate."
--Los Angeles Review of Books
"Her work deserves to be read alongside other titans of 20th-century Italian literature such as Natalia Ginzburg, Cesare Pavese and Italo Calvino (all of whom knew and revered her)... Told with magnificent restraint, and without the tensions ever breaking the novel's serene, crystalline structure, A Silence Shared is a wonderful taste of Romano's work."
--The Spectator
"When a book is praised by three of Italy's greatest 20th-century writers - Giorgio Bassani, Italo Calvino and Natalia Ginzburg - you pay attention... through short scenes and spare dialogue, Romano successfully creates a mood of stasis, anticipation and guilt."
--The Guardian
"Reading this beguiling book was not unlike watching light and shadow complicate the surface of a still, deep pool of summer water. Hats off to Brian Robert Moore for the stunning translation."
--Sunjeev Sahota, Lithub
"Exquisite."
--Irish Times
"Romano writes in a dreamlike present, which is to say the present that appears to us in dreams... clear and full of shadows, concrete and out of reach."
--Natalia Ginzburg
"A subtle and captivating story... An incredibly complex and tough knot of human ties, [explored] with a heightened sensitivity that never falters."
--Italo Calvino
Book Information
ISBN 9781782278207
Author Lalla Romano
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Pushkin Press
Publisher Pushkin Press
