QUELLO CHE SO DI TE

A great family story that folds in time and memory. A story of mothers and daughters, of imperfection and tenderness in search of a truth buried in the shadows of the past.

A woman, in front of her new-born daughter, has only one certainty: from now on, she will never be able to afford to go crazy again. Madness in her family is not just an abstract thought but it has a name, and that name is Venera. A great-grandmother who has always had a special place in her dreams. But who was Venera? What was the event that led her to cross the threshold of Mandalari, the mental asylum in Messina? To find out what happened, it is essential to interrogate the Family Mythology, which, however, perhaps lies, perhaps makes mistakes, transfiguring each episode with unreliable details. This is not only a story of women, but also of men: fathers who have broad shoulders and long arms, good for dropping bombs at war; fathers who can get scared, run away, get lost. To tell the story of the women and men of this family, their downfalls and their stubborn courage, it is not enough to dream of the past, you have to go and get it. To return to Messina, to return within the walls where Venera was interned, and to seek a way through the memories (or lies?) handed down, between invention and reality, between the responses of psychiatry and those of family stories. Nadia Terranova was born in Messina and lives in Rome. With Einaudi she has published the novels Gli anni al contrario (2015, winner of numerous awards including the Bagutta Opera Prima, the Brancati and the American The Bridge Book Award), Addio fantasmi (2018, finalist for Premio Strega, Premio Alassio Centolibri) and Trema la notte (2022, Premio Elio Vittorini, Premio Internazionale del mare Piero Ottone). She contributes to the cultural pages of La Repubblica and La Stampa. She is translated in many languages. This is her first novel published with Guanda.