Description
This bundle includes three novels by Natalia Ginzburg published by Daunt Books.
In All Our Yesterdays, Anna, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl in a small town in northern Italy, finds herself pregnant after a brief romance. To save her reputation, she marries an eccentric older family friend, Cenzo Rena, and they move to his village in the south. Their relationship is touched by tragedy and grace as the events of their life in the countryside run parallel to the war and the encroaching threat of fascism – and in their wake, a society dealing with anxiety and grief.
Valentino is the spoiled child of doting parents who have no doubt he will be ‘a man of consequence’. His sisters, however, see him for what he truly is: lazy, apathetic, self-absorbed and far more interested in partying than applying himself to his studies at medical school. His parents’ dreams begin to unravel when, out of the blue, Valentino becomes engaged to the wealthy yet strikingly ugly Maddalena. The family is scandalised by his choice of bride – and suspicious of his motives. In Valentino, class, social expectations, wealth and marriage come under Natalia Ginzburg’s forensic scrutiny, her unflinching moral realism and her keen psychological insight resulting in a work of quiet devastation.
In The City and The House, Giuseppe is leaving Rome to go and live with his brother in America. He must say goodbye to his cousin Roberta, to his former lover Lucrezia and her husband Piero, and to all his friends who used to gather for weekends at Le Margherite, Lucrezia’s splendid house in the country. But even before Giuseppe’s departure, friendships have begun to fracture as frustrated yearnings and past infidelities strain the bonds. The sale of Le Margherite marks the end of an era and its old inhabitants and visitors are left to pursue happiness on their own. Their stories unfold through an exchange of letters that reveal with great poignancy the thoughts, passions and desires of the protagonists.