Donatella Di Pietrantonio

“I was the Arminuta, the girl returned. I spoke another language, I no longer knew who I belonged to. The word ‘mama’ stuck in my throat like a toad. And, nowadays, I really have no idea what kind of place mother is. It is not mine in the way one might have good health, a safe place, certainty.” Without warning or a word of explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother, and deprivation. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self. Told with immediacy and rare expressive intensity, A Girl Returned marks the English-language debut of an extraordinary literary talent. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving, pitch-perfect in Ann Goldstein’s English translation.

A Girl Returned

Borgo Sud

L'Arminuta

FINALIST FOR THE 2021 STREGA PRIZE From the internationally acclaimed author of A Girl Returned, a spellbinding story about family, memory, love, and the relationships that define us. It's the darkest time of night. Adriana, a baby in her arms, hammers on her sister's door. Who is she running from? What uncomfortable truth is she carrying with her? Like a whirlwind, Adriana upends her sister's life bringing chaos and cataclysmic revelations. Years later, the narrator gets an unexpected, urgent summons back to Pescara, her hometown. She embarks on a long journey through the night, and through the folds and twists of her memory, from her and her sister's youth, their loves and losses, secrets and regrets. Back in Borgo Sud, the town's fishermen's quarter, in that impenetrable yet welcoming microcosm, she will discover what really happened, and attempt to make peace with the past. Donatella Di Pietrantonio, expert chronicler of the bonds between mothers and daughters, revisits the places and characters of A Girl Returned with a moving novel focused on the ambivalent, ambiguous, wavering but steadfast relationship between sisters.

A Sister's Story

A retornada

Arminuta

Con una postfazione dell'autrice *** Come si possono ricomporre i cocci di una vita quando la terra trema e rimescola luoghi, prospettive, relazioni?

Bella mia

Mia madre è un fiume

FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF A GIRL RETURNED, COMES A MOVING NEW NOVEL ABOUT SISTERHOOD, THE PAST AND ITS INDELIBLE MARKS ﻿* A Strega Prize 2021 finalist * It’s the darkest time of night. Adriana, a baby in her arms, hammers on her sister's door. Who is she running from? What uncomfortable truth will she deliver? Like a whirlwind, Adriana breaks into her sister’s life bringing chaos and cataclysmic revelations. Years later, the narrator gets an unexpected, urgent summons back to Pescara. She embarks on a long journey through the night, and through the folds and twists of her memory, from her and her sister’s youth, their loves and losses, their secrets and regrets. Back in Borgo Sud, the town’s fishermen’s quarter, in that impenetrable yet welcoming microcosm, she will discover what really happened, and perhaps make peace with the past. Donatella Di Pietrantonio, expert chronicler of the bonds between mothers and daughters, revisits the places and characters of A Girl Returned with a novel focussed on the ambivalent, ambiguous, wavering but steadfast relationship between sisters.

A Sister’s Story

Con la maleta en una mano y una mano y una bolsa con zapatos en la otra, una muchacha de trece años llama a una puerta tras la que hay un mundo desconocido, extraño. Empieza así esta historia vehemente y cautivadora, con una adolescente que de un día para otro es devuelta a su familia biológica y lo pierde todo: una casa confortable, a sus mejores amigas, el cariño incondicional de sus padres, o de quienes creía que eran sus padres. Su nuevo hogar es pequeño, oscuro, hay hermanos por todas partes y poca comida en la mesa. Pero está Adriana, la hermana pequeña que le abre mucho más que la puerta de su nueva casa.

La Retornada

Bella Mia

The sensitive and powerful story of the love between a mother and her daughter, a love "gone wrong from the start". When Esperia exhibits the symptoms of dementia, her daughter takes care of her and help her to rebuild her disintegrating identity. Day after day we learn about the characters of the extended family, the small village still without running water or electricity, in a "bright and harsh" Abruzzo.

My Mother is a River

Aos treze anos, uma menina descobre brutalmente que o homem e a mulher que a criaram não são seus pais. Filha única, privilegiada, com uma casa à beira-mar e aulas de ballet, é obrigada a abandonar o lar onde cresceu para ser devolvida à família biológica. Não lhe é dada qualquer explicação. Leva consigo uma mala e um saco de sapatos. Começa agora uma nova e inesperada vida. A família biológica é pobre, caótica e pouco acolhedora. Naquela que é agora a sua casa, na aldeia, tem de partilhar um colchão com a irmã e o quarto com os três irmãos mais velhos. A violência, a fome, os costumes... tudo lhe é incompreensível. Mas há a pequena Adriana, que a recebe com a candura típica das crianças; e há Vincenzo, o irmão mais velho, que a protege mas também a olha como se fosse já uma mulher... É na sua relação com eles que a jovem irá encontrar forças para começar de novo e - quem sabe? - construir a sua própria identidade.

A Filha Devolvida

Moving and unsentimental story of inner reconstruction after a devastating lossShortlisted for the prestigious Premio Strega in Italy in 2014, this is the story of a broken family coming to terms, in the aftermath of the earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009, with the loss of one of them - a twin sister, a daughter, a mother - while living in temporary accommodation on the outskirts of the city. The terse and clean voice of the spiky, single, thirty-something female narrator wards off sentimentality while guiding us through the inner reconstruction undertaken by each character individually and by the family as a whole, letting us witness the extraordinary poetic power of love and the renewal of hope.

”Jeg var tretten, og jeg kendte ikke længere min anden mor.” Sådan begynder fortællingen om en ung pige, der bliver afleveret med en kuffert og en pose fuld af sko hos en familie, hun slet ikke kender. Den eneste forklaring, hun får af de to, hun hidtil har kaldt far og mor, er, at hendes rigtige forældre gerne vil have hende tilbage. Men ingen synes at vente hende i den fremmede familie, her har man nok i sine egne bekymringer. Fattigdommen er stor, øretæverne hænger løst, at kunne spise sig mæt og gå regelmæssigt i skole er ikke noget, familiens børn kender til. Hun må dele seng med en lillesøster og værelse med tre halvvoksne brødre, og nattens lyde og lugte gennemtrænger alt, ligesom snavset og de hårde ord. Alle i landsbyen kalder hende hånligt Arminuta, hende der kom tilbage. Men hvorfor er hun blevet sendt tilbage til sine biologiske forældre? Hvad har hun gjort forkert? Er der sket noget? Og hvem er egentlig hendes mor? Den kvinde, der fødte hende, men gav hende fra sig, eller den kvinde, hun er vokset op hos, som nu også har stødt hende bort? I denne nye verden og familie skal pigen finde sig til rette, mens spørgsmålene tumler ubesvaret rundt. Hun forsøger at finde en vej tilbage til det liv, de forældre og de venner, hun kender, men langsomt opstår der nye bånd til hendes modige lillesøster, de tre brødre og hendes biologiske mor. Pigen de sendte tilbage er en roman om en usædvanlig familiehistorie og om stærke venskaber, der overvinder fattigdom og fortvivlende forhold. En indtrængende, realistisk og poetisk roman om en ung piges vej mod sin egen plads i livet, om ansvarsfølelse og tilhørsforhold, om søskendeskab og om kompliceret moderkærlighed.

Donatella Di Pietrantonio

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