Portrait of a Family With a Fat Daughter - Brossura

Giacobino, Margherita; Landry, Judith

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1910213489 ISBN 13: 9781910213483

Casa editrice: Dedalus Ltd, 2017

Riassunto

It has been a long while in Italian fiction since such an authentic and engaging voice has appeared.' Bruno Quaranta in La Stampa Portrait of a Family with a Fat Daughter tells the story of four generations of a peasant family living outside Turin between the late nineteenth century and the boom years of the 1950s, as they clamber out of grinding rural poverty into the sixties world of frozen fish and fridges. The author's grandmother emigrates to California and returns to Italy semi-paralysed after a mishap as she is giving birth. When her father dies the author's eight-year-old mother returns to Italy, to be brought up by a family she does not know, to become Italian again and ultimately to marry a captivating 'man-boy' whose fecklessness is grippingly described, as is his time in a German prison camp in World War 11. She runs a small shop which gradually expands, lifting the family out of the working class; her daughter, Margherita, always a conscientious student, reared by this extended matriarchal family, becomes the writer of this book. 'An epic novel, which is the story of an Italy which no longer exists, becomes the portrait of a family. It is a novel which touches the heart.' Valeria Parrella in Grazie

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Recensione

This memoir of four generations of a family provides a vivid and eloquent picture of Italian life stretching from the late 19th century, when the peasant lifestyle had changed little from medieval times, up to the consumer culture of the 1950s. It s a saga that embraces characters like Maria, who emigrated to the USA for an unwise marriage, returning a few years later with a daughter and paralysis down one side of her body, and the author's father, Angelo, a feckless chap who was interned in a German POW camp. In writing about her female-dominated family, some of whom she is old enough to remember most notably the matriarchal grandmother Ninin Giacobino imbues her account with a real sense of intimacy. She has a powerful feel for traditional Italian culture, her early chapters conjuring up a time when the hierarchy of the family was the only true reality, fairness was unknown and a moment's tenderness must last a week --Alastair Mabbutt in The Herald

Part fiction, part fact, this book describes four generations of a peasant family living outside Turin between the late 19th century and the 1960s. When her father dies, the author's eight-year-old mother returns from America to Italy, to be raised by her relatives, marry a feckless husband and run a small shop. The prosperity of this enterprise helps the extended family to emerge from poverty. Beautifully and sympathetically evoking the intense world of working-class Turin, this story is a pleasure to read. --The Catholic Herald

Margherita Giacobino is an Italian writer and translator, making her first appearance in English with Portrait of a Family with a Fat Daughter. A sweeping narrative covering the 1890s to the 1960s, it tells of an Italian family s efforts to escape poverty. The narrator's grandmother emigrates to California, but as tragedy strikes they must return and learn, again, to be Italian. A warm and direct story, memorable for its vivid description and depth of cultural understanding. --Thomas Tallon in The Tablet

L'autore

Margherita Giacobino, born in 1952, lives in Turin. She is a writer,journalist and translator . She translated - among others - Emily Bronte, Gustave Flaubert, Margaret Atwood, Dorothy Allison, Audre Lorde. She made her debut in 1993 with the novel Un' Americana a Parigi written under the pseudonym of Elinor Rigby. !n 1996 she published Casalinghe All'Inferno, in 2007 L'Educazione Sentimentale Di C.B. and in 2010 L'Uovo Fuori Dal Cavagno. The Portrait of a Family with a Fat Daughter published in Italy in 2015 has already been translated into French and German. It is the first novel by Margherita Giacobino to be translated into English

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Dedalus Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1910213489
• ISBN 13: 9781910213483
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 304