Il corpo non dimentica

The body does not forget

Violetta Bellocchio sets out to retrace three years of alcoholism, three years that seem to have vanished into a prolonged blackout. At the suggestion of her sober coach, she withdraws to a country house with a single purpose: to piece herself back together. She brings with her a notebook and the determination to tell the truth, one word at a time. The rules are uncompromising: no lies, no inventions, no visitors. Over the course of twenty-eight days, through twenty-eight words, she charts the treacherous path of recovery and the fragile yet persistent will to become whole again. Because, she knows, the body never forgets. Brutal and lyrical in equal measure, this memoir is the story of a possession. Already a cult classic, it returns in a new expanded edition, once again striking readers with the clarity of its gaze and a merciless honesty that ultimately becomes compassion, acknowledging not only our frailties but also our capacity for redemption.

«Sometimes you say that being addicted to something means having an epic love affair with yourself. Like those lifelong pas de deux between people who cannot bear to be apart. Living inside a story; being a story. There are couples who tie strings around each other’s wrists so they can feel every movement the other makes in their sleep, so that not a single gesture goes unfelt by either of them. That isn’t a lie. It’s even true. But it’s bigger than that. The other half of that love is stabbing yourself in the stomach every single day. And I liked it».