La stanza di Natalia

Isabella is ten years old when her world falls apart: her mother suddenly abandons the family and her father, completely unable to cope with the situation, decides to send her on holiday to her grandparents. It is the summer of 1981, and Isabella leaves her home in Agrigento for the north. She does not know it yet, but this is the journey that will change her life forever. Waiting for her in Turin are her uncle Alfredo, with whom she has always been a little in love, her grandfather Pacifico and, above all, Antonia, her generous and immodest grandmother, a brilliant liar who has a special gift for inventing stories to alleviate the burden of a difficult existence. Imagination is a talent, a power, an anchor to cling to when grey reality overwhelms us, and Isabella is overwhelmed by it. Antonia works as a cleaner at the Einaudi publishing house and comes home every day with amazing stories. There is a gentleman named Calvino who loves fried anchovies, but they keep him awake at night, so in the morning he writes down his nightmares in a notebook and turns them into beautiful stories. There is Elsa Morante, madly in love with all cats, even stray or sick ones. And there is Natalia Ginzburg, who writes in seclusion in a room where she allows only children to enter. Isabella takes refuge in the enchantment that only certain magnificent lies can evoke, but the indifference of adults and their hateful logic hurt her. So one day, driven by her innate tendency to get into trouble, she commits a crazy and surprising act of rebellion. However, this will lead her to make peace with herself and, perhaps, once and for all, with the adult world.