Dante member Italian Literature Book Group for November

The focus of the book group is fiction and non-fiction; books written by Italian authors (in translation); books written by any author, set in Italy, and books about Italy. It’s a large set, but one book generally leads in the direction of the next, so we won’t feel discombobulated. The moderator of the book club is Connie Bertuca, former high school English teacher, lover of books and Italian travel, and perpetual Italian 2 student.

 📚 The November 2023 Book Selection  — A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio

WINNER OF THE CAMPIELLO PRIZE

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 TRANSLATED BOOK AWARDS

A 2019 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (Washington Post ・Kirkus Reviews・Dallas Morning News)

A pitch-perfect rendering in English by Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante’s translator.

Told with an immediacy and a rare expressive intensity that has earned it countless adoring readers and one of Italy’s most prestigious literary prizes, A Girl Returned is a powerful novel rendered with sensitivity and verve by Ann Goldstein, translator of the works of Elena Ferrante. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving.

Without warning or a word of explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother, and deprivation. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self. 

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*the size of the group is limited to 10 members.  If you are not yet a paid member of Dante, sign-up here.  

Questions about Book Club? You can message Connie at bertuca@cruzio.com