Forbidden Notebook

Alba de Céspedes, Ann Goldstein, Jhumpa Lahiri

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Hardback

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English

Pushkin Press
01 May 2024

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Fiction in translation

Out running an errand, Valeria Cossati gives in to a sudden impulse - she buys a shiny black notebook. She starts keeping a diary in secret, recording her concerns about her daughter, fears her husband will discover her new habit and the constant churn of the domestic routine. With each entry Valeria plunges deeper into her interior life, uncovering profound dissatisfaction and restlessness. As she finds her own voice, the roles that have come to define her-as wife, as mother, as daughter-begin to break apart. Forbidden Notebook is a rediscovered jewel of Italian literature, published here in a new translation by the celebrated Ann Goldstein and with a foreword by Jhumpa Lahiri. A captivating feminist classic, it is an intimate, haunting story of domestic discontent in postwar Rome, and of one woman's awakening to her true thoughts and desires.

By: Alba de Céspedes
Introduction by: Jhumpa Lahiri
Translated by: Ann Goldstein
Imprint: Pushkin Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm,
ISBN: 9781782277507
ISBN 10: 1782277501
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 01 May 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alba de Cespedes (1911-97) was a bestselling Italian-Cuban novelist, poet and screenwriter. The granddaughter of the first President of Cuba, de Cespedes was raised in Rome. Married at 15 and a mother by 16, she began her writing career after her divorce at the age of 20. She worked as a journalist throughout the 1930s while also taking an active part in the Italian partisan struggle, and was twice jailed for her anti-fascist activities. After the fall of fascism, she founded the literary journal Mercurio and went on to become one of Italy's most successful and most widely translated authors. Her Side of the Story is also forthcoming from Pushkin Press.