Description

A captivating feminist classic about a woman’s struggle for independence in fascist Italy, from the author of Forbidden Notebook – with an afterword by Elena Ferrante

Alessandra has always wanted more than life offered her. Growing up in a crowded apartment block in 1930s Rome, she watches as her mother’s dreams of becoming a concert pianist are stifled by an unsatisfying marriage. When her father’s traditional family try to make Alessandra marry at a young age, she rebels against the future they imagine for her.

Soon she falls passionately in love with Francesco, an anti-fascist professor, and a new world seems to open up. Working for the underground resistance, she tastes the independence that she has yearned for. But what will it take for her to break free from society’s expectations, and live on her own terms?

Drawing on Alba de Cespedes’s own experiences in Italy’s wartime uprising, Her Side of the Story is a feminist chronicle of fierce and unforgettable power.

Publisher Review

‘Reading Alba de Cespedes was, for me, like breaking into an unknown universe: social class, feelings, atmosphere’ – Annie Ernaux

‘One of Italy’s most cosmopolitan, incendiary, insightful, and overlooked writers’ – Jhumpa Lahiri

‘Alba de Cespedes wrote novels in the 1940s and 1950s that were radically contemporary, both then and now… A courageous novel, beautifully imagined and written’ – Washington Post

‘de Cespedes masterfully chronicles how a lifetime of indignities and sufferings can pile up to fray even the most well-intended people… Her Side of the Story is an achievement that warrants not only a second look at this forgotten writer, but also an important place in the canon of women’s literature’ – Chicago Review of Books

‘Devastating… de Cespedes’s melancholy testament to a hidden life feels timeless and vital’ – Publishers Weekly (starred review)