Bøger af Donatella Di Pietrantonio

An elderly woman shows the first symptoms of a disease that takes away her memory. Her mind is gradually becoming one long, dark, moonless night. Only her daughter can help her mitigate that darkness, reconstructing her story, but also that marked by a love "that went wrong right away." Unraveling the small and big events of her everyday life brings to the surface sweet but also hard memories, full of life and truth, starting with the birth of her mother Esperia and her five sisters, all daughters of a survivor of the Great War. In Abruzzo, a luminous and inhospitable region that rises up like a mythological and distant land, the work of the fields, the joy of weddings, the coarseness of affections and the end of feminine submission are intertwined with the story of a slow metamorphosis of feelings, in an indissoluble mother-daughter bond that is torn between love and hate, nostalgia and rejection.

Winner of the Campiello Prize.A pitch-perfect rendering in English by Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante's translator."I was the Arminuta, the girl returned. I spoke another language, I no longer knew who I belonged to. The word ?mama' stuck in my throat like a toad. And, nowadays, I really have no idea what kind of place mother is. It is not mine in the way one might have good health, a safe place, certainty."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 marks the English-language debut of an extraordinary literary talent. 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 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, tension, and conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother. 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.

Sisters share the past, and its indelible marks

”Jeg var tretten, og jeg kendte ikke længere min anden mor.”Sådan begynder fortællingen om en ung pige, der bliver afleveret med en kuffert og en pose fuld af sko hos en familie, hun slet ikke kender. Den eneste forklaring, hun får af de to, hun hidtil har kaldt far og mor, er, at hendes rigtige forældre gerne vil have hende tilbage. Men ingen synes at vente hende i den fremmede familie, her har man nok i sine egne bekymringer.Fattigdommen er stor, øretæverne hænger løst, at kunne spise sig mæt og gå regelmæssigt i skole er ikke noget, familiens børn kender til. Hun må dele seng med en lillesøster og værelse med tre halvvoksne brødre, og nattens lyde og lugte gennemtrænger alt, ligesom snavset og de hårde ord. Alle i landsbyen kalder hende hånligt Arminuta, hende der kom tilbage. Men hvorfor er hun blevet sendt tilbage til sine biologiske forældre? Hvad har hun gjort forkert? Er der sket noget? Og hvem er egentlig hendes mor? Den kvinde, der fødte hende, men gav hende fra sig, eller den kvinde, hun er vokset op hos, som nu også har stødt hende bort? I denne nye verden og familie skal pigen finde sig til rette, mens spørgsmålene tumler ubesvaret rundt. Hun forsøger at finde en vej tilbage til det liv, de forældre og de venner, hun kender, men langsomt opstår der nye bånd til hendes modige lillesøster, de tre brødre og hendes biologiske mor. Pigen de sendte tilbage er en roman om en usædvanlig familiehistorie og om stærke venskaber, der overvinder fattigdom og fortvivlende forhold. En indtrængende, realistisk og poetisk roman om en ung piges vej mod sin egen plads i livet, om ansvarsfølelse og tilhørsforhold, om søskendeskab og om kompliceret moderkærlighed.