Price: $18.00 - $17.99
(as of Mar 01, 2025 03:01:27 UTC – Details)
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
“Powerful.” —The New Yorker
“Brilliant.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Astounding.” —NPR
“Forceful, clear and morally engaged.” —The Washington Post
“Subversive.” —The New York Times Book Review
“An exquisite, tormented howl.” —The Financial Times
“Quick, propulsive, and addictive.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Gripping.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A remarkable story.” —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Wrenching, sardonic.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“As relevant today as it was in postwar Italy.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
With a foreword by Jhumpa Lahiri, Forbidden Notebook is a classic domestic novel by the Italian-Cuban feminist writer Alba de Céspedes, whose work inspired contemporary writers like Elena Ferrante.
In this modern translation by acclaimed Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein, Forbidden Notebook centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome.
Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son. As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis’ facade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family’s fragile fabric apart.
An exquisitely crafted portrayal of domestic life, Forbidden Notebook recognizes the universality of human aspirations.
From the Publisher
ASIN : B09Y55QWNP
Publisher : Astra House (January 17, 2023)
Publication date : January 17, 2023
Language : English
File size : 2.4 MB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 266 pages
Customers say
Customers praise the narrative style as sophisticated and exciting. They appreciate the author’s exceptional conveying of feelings, thoughts, and emotions that many people will identify with. The honesty grippingly prompted an examination of their own lives, capturing complex considerations around love, commitment, family, and satisfaction.
