Description

FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF A GIRL RETURNED, COMES A MOVING NEW NOVEL ABOUT SISTERHOOD, THE PAST AND ITS INDELIBLE MARKS

* NATALIE PORTMAN’S BOOK CLUB PICK FOR JULY 2022*

*A Strega Prize 2021 finalist *

It’s the darkest time of night. Adriana, a baby in her arms, hammers on her sister’s door. Who is she running from? What uncomfortable truth will she deliver? Like a whirlwind, Adriana breaks into her sister’s life bringing chaos and cataclysmic revelations.

Years later, the narrator gets an unexpected, urgent summons back to Pescara. She embarks on a long journey through the night, and through the folds and twists of her memory, from her and her sister’s youth, their loves and losses, their secrets and regrets. Back in Borgo Sud, the town’s fishermen’s quarter, in that impenetrable yet welcoming microcosm, she will discover what really happened, and perhaps make peace with the past.

Donatella Di Pietrantonio, expert chronicler of the bonds between mothers and daughters, revisits the places and characters of A Girl Returned with a novel focussed on the ambivalent, ambiguous, wavering but steadfast relationship between sisters.

Publisher Review

"Intimate and sharp." * Il Foglio * "A true jewel." * Huffington Post (Italy) * "Di Pietrantonio's gift for storytelling is sustained by the understated poetry of her language." * The Skinny * "A Sister's Story carries the same message of the greatest Italian literature of the 20th century, from Elsa Morante to Primo Levi, a message at once tragic and hopeful--that, while suffering may be an inevitable part of life, we can choose not to let it define us." * La Repubblica * "Di Pietrantonio has a lively way with a phrase (the translator, Ann Goldstein, shows the same sensitivity she does with Elena Ferrante) and a fine instinct for detail." * Washington Post on A Girl Returned *