A House in Sicily

Synopsis

During WWII, a young Tuscan woman falls in love with a man from the rural depths of southern Italy. As the conflict finally draws to a close, the two travel from Rome to finally meet with his family. But very quickly a dawning realisation breaks: her in-laws and their friends are eccentric in the extreme. They barely leave the house and they rarely speak to their son, fretting instead about their ‘daughter’ – a loud little dog – and worrying constantly, incessantly, about the weather. And, worst of all, they speak with a nostalgic warmth about the region’s recently overthrown fascist regime…

Translated by Ann Goldstein, the world-renowned translator of Elena Ferrante, A House in Sicily is a brilliantly funny, razor sharp examination of family life in the shadow of the darkest period of modern Italian history, and the most exciting rediscovered European classic in decades.

Author

Luisa Adorno (1921 – 2021) was a writer and journalist, contributing throughout her career to Italy’s most important newspapers. Her books L’ultima provincia (1983), Le dorate stanze (1985, Winner of Premio Prato-Europa and Premio Pisa), Arco di luminara (1990, Winner of Premio Viareggio and Premio Racalmare-Leonardo Sciascia), La libertà ha un cappello a cilindro (1993), Come a un ballo in maschera (1995, Premio Donna Martina Franca), Sebben che siamo donne… (1999, Premio Vittorini), Foglia d’acero with Daniele Pecorini-Manzoni (2001) and Tutti qui con me (2008) are all published in Italy by Sellerio, and since her death have been republished to renewed critical acclaim.