Ogni singola assenza

The women protagonists of this story spanning at least three generations pass on a secret to each other: they can make it on their own, even without fathers, husbands or brothers: ‘in their stories, men were atmospheric events, accidents that happened on the road to make them stumble’. Tina, who is half deaf and learns resilience in the rice fields, is the first to realise this; Viola, who writes letters to her dead relatives and has her portrait painted nude without feeling ashamed, understands it too; for Giada, it is instinct, or perhaps the stars she sometimes questions, that tell her that the future is in her hands. And Ira, without ‘boundaries thick enough to shelter her from external assaults’, finds herself measuring her place in the world through distances and constant departures. Ogni singola assenza is the story of a family, or rather of a family memory. The memory of the women who belong to it and those who have crossed their path; a collective coming-of-age novel, an unadulterated tale of sisterhood, motherhood and bonds.