Forbidden Notebook: Alba de Céspedes (Pushkin Press Classics) - Softcover

De Céspedes, Alba

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782278222 ISBN 13: 9781782278221

Publisher: Pushkin Press Classics, 2024

Synopsis

Out running an errand, Valeria Cossati gives in to a sudden impulse - she buys a shiny black notebook. She starts keeping a diary in secret, recording her concerns about her daughter, the constant churn of the domestic routine and her fears that her husband will discover her new habit. With each entry Valeria plunges deeper into her interior life, uncovering profound dissatisfaction and restlessness. As she finds her own voice, the roles that have come to define her-as wife, as mother, as daughter-begin to break apart. Forbidden Notebook is a rediscovered jewel of Italian literature, published here in a new translation by the celebrated Ann Goldstein and with a foreword by Jhumpa Lahiri. A captivating feminist classic, it is an intimate, haunting story of domestic discontent in postwar Rome, and of one woman's awakening to her true thoughts and desires.

About this title

About the Author

Alba de Céspedes (1911-97) was a bestselling Italian-Cuban novelist, poet and screenwriter. The granddaughter of the first President of Cuba, de Céspedes was raised in Rome. Married at 15 and a mother by 16, she began her writing career after her divorce at the age of 20. She worked as a journalist throughout the 1930s while also taking an active part in the Italian partisan struggle, and was twice jailed for her anti-fascist activities. After the fall of fascism, she founded the literary journal Mercurio and went on to become one of Italy's most successful and most widely translated authors. Her Side of the Story is also available from Pushkin Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pushkin Press Classics
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1782278222
• ISBN 13: 9781782278221
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272