In these two novellas, Family and Borghesia, underneath a subtle, stripped-down prose and a rich cast of characters, runs a seam of unhappiness and isolation as Natalia Ginzburg explores the allure of memories and the complexity of family and relationships.
In Family, Carmine – uneasy in his life of aspiration and materialism – begins to look back over opportunities missed and choices made. Set against post-war social breakdown, the melancholic, quietly dazzling Family elegantly examines the human condition and what brings happiness to a life.
Widow Ilaria has three cats in quick succession, each one disappearing or dying. Living with her brother-in-law Pietro and her teenage daughter and husband, Ilaria shoulders all the housekeeping and cooking. At first comic, but becoming progressively dark, Borghesia is a delicate evocation of one life and the relationships that constrain and define it.
‘[Ginzburg’s] stories have a subtle power that catches you at the end . . . each sings with the characteristic wit and piercing clarity of prose that holds you rapt when you read her work.’ Paris Review Daily
‘The world and its characters is circumscribed in size, but expansive in feeling ― the work of a writer who believed herself to be “small” but who was in fact anything but.’ The Times
