La signorina Crovato

Against the backdrop of an unusual Venice, a fascinating family saga about a young girl’s courage and her brave and thrilling journey to self-affirmation, during one of the darkest periods in Italian history.

Miss Crovato is the story of a stolen childhood and of a free spirit overcoming all odds, written in a dazzling and unmistakable style.

Luciana is three and a half years old when “the tragedy” hits her family. It’s 1936 and Venice is still a city where people greet each other in the street: a lively city, full of shops, artisans and traders. Her beloved father, a clarinettist, an atheist and an anti-fascist, can no longer provide for the family and her mother is forced to make do: for Luciana it’s the beginning of a long series of vicissitudes, marked by the constant torment of poverty. The girl deals with whatever life throws at her, without ever losing her joy of living and the curiosity that makes her so special. In the meantime, she learns a thousand trades. Entrusted to a family of farmers, she ends up taking care of the animals, and sleeping in a turkey basket; then she improvises as a hairdresser apprentice, a baker, an assistant to a brooms salesman, an embroiderer of handbags for twenty liras a piece; she learns French in the home of a wealthy family, where she helps the daughters with their homework and entertains them like an amateur lady-in-waiting; she works as a clerk at the Venice Lido and as a singer in a dance hall. At night, meanwhile, she practices as a typist, hoping to find a steady job one day: and when, finally, her dream comes true, a new world, wonderful and unexpected, opens up before her.

With a delightfully retro style and a beautifully detailed language, Luciana Boccardi tells the story of a very special child. A story that fills the reader with joy and good humour.

For fans of Oliver Twist and adventure books, a picaresque novel about the difficulties of everyday life, against the tragic backdrop of History.