Alba de Céspedes

The young women studying at the Grimaldi yearn for new kinds of life. Monitored by the nuns who run the college, eight of them form a close group, sharing confidences and hopes for the future. But each, too, has her private secrets— a child from an early love affair, frustrated artistic ambitions, burning desires, and petty jealousies. With the passing...

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, the constant churn of the domestic routine, and her fears that her husband will discover her new habit. With each entry, Valeria plunges deeper into her interior life, uncovering profound...

'A revolutionary thriller, bildungsroman and cry of feminist frustration... Actual-work-of-genius territory' Sunday Times A captivating feminist classic about a woman's struggle for independence in fascist Italy, from the author of Forbidden Notebook - with an afterword by Elena Ferrante Alessandra has always wanted more than life offered her. Growing up in a crowded apartment block in 1930s Rome, she watches...

Looking back over her life, Alessandra Corteggiani recalls her youth during the rise of fascism in 1930s Rome. A sensitive child, she was always alert to the loneliness and dissatisfaction of her mother and the other women in their crowded apartment block. Observing how their lives were weighed down by housework and the longing for romance, she became determined to...