Undici. Non dimenticare

Eleven stories of women set in Naples and its province, similar to photographs capable of recounting the human and social condition of our times in a single fragment. Some of these stories are inspired by real events. Like the beautiful “La sedia” (The Chair), in which everything revolves around a little girl’s question about why a chair has been placed on the pavement to secure a parking space. Or “L’ultima cena” (The Last Supper), in which a woman is forced to come to terms with the most terrible of realities. Other stories emerge from fragments of real life, such as the carer who finds her nemesis in poetry, or the girl who dreamed of marrying a Camorra member. In all the stories, the protagonists find themselves struggling with a fate that seems inevitable. And always, the author’s writing, free of frills and sentimentality, shows us the weight and pain of female life in certain contexts. The stories in Undici. Non dimenticare, despite their complete autonomy, can be read as a sequel to the highly successful Dieci, with a similar setting but with a ray of light that makes its way through the tragedy and allows us to glimpse, albeit with difficulty, a glimmer of hope.