Description

A sharply beautiful and moving masterpiece about love and death by the classic Italian author of A Silence Shared

Upon the death of her husband, Innocenzo Monti, Lalla Romano sought to distil the essence of their long life together. The result was In Farthest Seas: a piercingly intimate retelling of the first four years and final four months of their relationship, built from shard-like moments of connection and revelation.

With precise artistry, Romano braids together seemingly minor details – the expressiveness of Innocenzo’s hands, the beauty of his face in sleep, a fleeting instance of pallor – that come to reveal the barest truths of life and death. Unsparing yet tender, minimal yet monumental, In Farthest Seas is a startlingly moving elegy for a great love by a vital Italian writer.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Brian Robert Moore

Lalla Romano (1906-2001) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and visual artist. Initially more active as a painter, from the 1940s Romano turned increasingly to writing, publishing her first poetry collection in 1941. During the Second World War 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. Her novel A Silence Shared, in Brian Robert Moore’s translation, is also available from Pushkin Press.

Publisher Review

“Romano’s miraculous work opens layer by layer, always guarding its innermost mystery. This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read”
-Aysegul Savas, author of The Anthropologists

“Her language is incredible, essential in its quality… An extraordinarily powerful book’
-Jhumpa Lahiri, author of Whereabouts

“Beautiful. Romano is, for me, the Italian Annie Ernaux”
-Sara Baume, author of Seven Steeples

“This is a book for those who know that the best time to take a walk in a cemetery is when you’re wildly in love”
-Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X