“Things that don’t matter to some can be as terrible as death to others.” Book divided into two stories detached from each other Hard Boiled and Hard Luck (hence the title H/H). Although indirectly in contrast to the setting, characters and family relationships, the background theme links the two stories: the world of the afterlife, and the attempt to move forward despite the inner pain. In the first story, the protagonist is a young girl...
“How many secrets hide the people with whom we spend life.” A quarrel for futile reasons in a couple, the violent gesture of the woman who with an ashtray breaks the incisors teeths of her partner, and a bottomless pit of memories and obsessions and fears and doubts that opens under the feet of our protagonist, now a name toothless. An “open mouth” journey – if you let us pass the joke – inside and...
“…this is how the House of Memories opens, but too late for “I” to get inside.” Who are we really? No one better than the places in which we live, or have lived, can tell us better. They are there, motionless or semi-mobile, looking at us, welcoming us, watching us grow, live and observe us as we sometimes leave. “The book of houses” is for us a successful literary experiment to tell the story of...
Written by Donatella Lanza This review is available only in the original language. _________________________________________________________ “Un altro mi attende altrove. Ci vado.” “Chi?” volle sapere Henri-Maximilien stupefatto. “Il Priore di Leon, quello sdentato?” Zenone si volse: “Hic Zeno,” rispose. “Me stesso.” Nella mia vita, solo una cosa ha messo sotto la lente di ingrandimento il concetto di libertà come il 2020: l’Opera al Nero, di Marguerite Yourcenar. Il romanzo, che in senso lato ha plasmato la...
Written by Alessia Giannola This review is available only in the original language. _______________________________________________________ Kitchen è il romanzo esordio della scrittrice giapponese Banana Yoshimoto ed è composto da tre parti: kitchen, plenilunio e moonlight shadow; quest’ultima parte è però presente solo in alcune edizioni del libro tra cui questa edita dalla Feltrinelli. Il filo conduttore del libro è il tema della solitudine, infatti Mikage, la protagonista, è una giovane ragazza che si ritrova sola al mondo...
“Life is full of consolation prizes.” Brilliant, fast, full of ideas and reflections. Dr. Galvan’s long night is by extension the life of each of us, but not exactly at night, but during the day. Forced into a well-defined role and ready to wear expressionless masks to create something that then turns out to be empty, we lose sight of the most important things. The nothing created in the book is contained in the superfluous...
“When a deep desire has been fulfilled, the woman is willing to forgive. If not, she will never forgive.” An intense novel, dedicated to the exploration of the female soul, without any kind of cliché or, even worse, a search for easy consensus. Delicate but hard at the same time, difficult to digest in some passages and yet equally light. The book represents a milestone in the path of self-awareness and acceptance, especially in those...
“But what’s the point of being right, when you are faced with the blank, unperturbed gaze of satisfied ignorance?” A divisive book, defined as both a masterpiece and an impossible brick to absorb. Before saying what we think, we specify that it is a book that must be understood, that is, contextualized on the one hand within the historical period told by the author, on the other within the period in which it was printed...
“Sad houses, even without a particular reason, end up making those who live there sad.” An intense book with good feelings. An invitation to behave well and do good in order to live a life to the best of one’s ability, because even when we have winter inside us, a rainbow is always ready to reveal itself on the horizon. The protagonist, Eiko, is a hypersensitive girl, who grew up in a Japanese seaside, where...
Written by Giada Marino This review is available only in the original language. __________________________________________________________ Protagonista di questa avventura è Cecilia, una ragazza di dodici anni dalla lingua tagliente e con un carattere carismatico, sebbene a volte superficiale. Il suo unico obiettivo è quello di conquistare Flavio, un ragazzo molto biondo di cui la nostra piccola eroina si è invaghita per via del colore dei capelli. Per accalappiarlo è pronta a qualsiasi mezzo, e quello che le sembra...
