Fiction
Nives
by Sacha Naspini
Description
Cillerai’s widow can’t seem to be able to shed a tear for her husband’s death. She hasn’t cried when she found his body, she hasn’t cried at his funeral. When her daughter goes back home in France, Nives is left alone in her estate, with her animals and her little home. Nights are the toughest. She can’t sleep – her body feels numb and completely awake; one day she decides to take her favourite chicken, Giacomina, from the henhouse and keep her with her in the bedroom. Her anxiety immediately evaporates. She feels relieved and guilty: how could she replace her dead husband with a chicken?
She sleeps safe and sound now, silence and loneliness don’t scare her anymore. She even starts feeling inexplicably happy… Then one day, Giacomina ends up paralyzed in front of the tv, hypnotized by a detergent ad. Nives tries everything to wake her, but the chicken seems to be completely frozen. The only choice she is left with is to call the vet, Loriano Bottai.
Follows a phone call that seems to last a lifetime. Soon the conversation slips from the chicken to the past – the tension on the line changes, it becomes something else. Something that echoes regrets, rage and unforgivable memories – lost loves and bitterness.
Beyond Our Souls at Night, Nives is the stories we tell ourselves at night, when we can’t sleep. Stories of unspoken passions, of abandonment, of silent, heart-breaking nostalgia. We go back and forth in time with Nives, and we feel her anger, her loneliness, her desperate generosity in giving all of herself to Loriano and to the reader. With rage and infinite dignity, she breaks down and slowly takes the pieces of her life, of a life she told herself was hers, back together in one phone call – oftentimes it seems she is not even listening to the other side, but more speaking to her past self. She wants to fill the void that has haunted her for thirty years. What to do of that past, of all the roads we wanted to take we never had the guts to follow? What to do with all the years spent living lies? But ultimately – is life ever a lie, or is it just what it is? Are the sliding doors just stories we tell ourselves when we are not able to accept who we truly are?
With this new, ground-breaking novel, Naspini explores the core of who we are with such delicateness, such humanity, that it is impossible not to recognize yourself in the flawed, sad, messy, beautiful lives these characters have built for themselves. Nives’ story, her inner world, her courage in finally embracing the truth of her life, makes her story universal and necessary – she is honest, raw, clean, incorruptible. A fierce new heroine of Italian contemporary literature, one that is finally not afraid to look at herself in the mirror.
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Rights Information
Sold in Croazia (Profil)
Option publishers: China Beijing Creative Art Times France Actes Sud Greece Patakis Korea Minumsa Turkey Cumartesi
Endorsements
"I believe I am not wrong when I say Sacha Naspini is one of the most thrilling discoveries in Italian contemporary literature. Very few Italian authors are able to combine such compelling narrative with such atmospheric, bewitching writing. I am saying it publicly: in very short time Sacha Naspini will be sought after by everyone for the inventiveness and power of his novels, one of a few Italian authors who will pass the test of time in the memory of his readers. Read Nives, Ossigeno or Le Case del malcontento to make sure” Sandro Ferri, Editor-In-Chief of Edizioni E/O
Reviews
Quante cose è Nives. È un grotesque di puro stampo naspiniano. Che, sorpresa, scivola nella commedia: «Senza voler fare paragoni indegni — sorride l'autore — in questo romanzo c'è un monicelliano senso di leggerezza amara. Nives e Loriano sono due vecchi che sfuggono a come di solito letteratura e cinema trattano l'ultima fase della vita: decadenza, oppure saggezza, oppure bonarietà, oppure romanticismo, oppure comicità su quanto si può ancora essere arzilli. Per me nella vecchiaia, invece, non c'è redenzione, ma un'ulteriore possibilità di rovesciare la scacchiera, e Nives lo fa. L'interrogativo di questo racconto è: quanto risulta opportuno, in alcuni casi, dire la verità sulle cose e quanto no?».
La Repubblica
Una telefonata che vale una intera esistenza collettiva, è questo il sunto di un racconto veloce e naturale, in cui le scoperte vengono a galla con la spontaneità di una confessione cercata inconsciamente da tutti i protagonisti […] Segreti umani di provincia, segreti che valgono un percorso in cui Naspini fa riemergere con sapida ironia - a tratti viene in mente l'arte grottesca di Ugo Corsia - un tessuto sociale modesto e appartato, dove comunque la vita non è mai simile a se stessa e ai suoi personaggi provvisori.
La Stampa
Una ragazza volata giù dal campanile nel giorno di mercato, forse suicida, forse assassinata. Un adone di provincia dongiovanni e bisessuale manovrato come un burattino. La conversazione descrive una spirale centripeta che affronta questioni sempre più intime, fino a prendere di petto il buco nero esistenziale. «Una certa Nives è stata massacrata nell'82. Quello che è successo dopo è un'altra cosa. Non è roba da poco vivere con lo spettro di quel che saresti potuta essere. Ti guardi allo specchio e prima di darti il buongiorno vedi quello». Lo diceva anche Kierkegaard, la vita è fatta di bivi, è questa la sua tragedia. Prendiamo a destra, e in quel momento seppelliamo l'uomo che avrebbe preso a sinistra.
Il Giornale
Author Biography
Sasha Naspini was born in Tuscany in 1976. He’s an editor, screenwriter and art director, and author of critically acclaimed Le Case del malcontento, which was sold in China, Korea, Greece and Turkey and is being considered by many publishers worldwide. Its passionate, extremely sophisticated story-telling and unforgettable characterization makes it a psychological masterpiece, an analysis on the complexity of human nature – compared by the press to the Spoon River Anthology. Tv rights were acquired by Jean Vigo. Edizioni E/O has also published Ossigeno in 2019 (sold in France to Actes Sud) and I Cariolanti in February 2020.
Edizioni e/o
Edizioni E/O and Europa Editions are two independent publishers of quality fiction. The companies were founded respectively in 1979 and 2005 by Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri. The idea behind Edizioni E/O and Europa is one of cultural exchange rooted in bringing high quality translated fiction into Italian bookshops, but also bringing the best Italian contemporary literature can offer to the American and British market - and the world in general. Our catalog is eclectic, reflecting the founders’ belief that dialogue between nations and cultures is of vital importance and that this exchange is facilitated by literature chosen not only for its ability to entertain and fascinate but also to inform and enlighten. Notable successes at E/O and Europa include: Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which spent almost a year on the New York Times Bestseller list and the IndieBound bestseller list; Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, including My Brilliant Friend, a New York Times bestseller; Massimo Carlotto's Mediterranean noir series, soon to be a tv show for the Italian network RAI; Ahmet Altan's Ottoman quartet, powerful critique of an authoritarian regime with echoes of contemporary Turkey. Never tired of research, Edizioni E/O is building a list of fresh, strong, experimental new voices in Italian contemporary literature, with an attention to novels with a strong sense of place, sophisticated plots and attentive character development: the works of Sacha Naspini, Fabio Bartolomei, Massimo Cuomo are already known internationally as a new wave of what made Edizioni E/O and Europa Editions one of the most adventurous and succesful publishers of the last ten years.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Edizioni E/O
- Publication Date September 2020
- Orginal LanguageItalian
- ISBN/Identifier 9788833572499
- Publication Country or regionItaly
- FormatHardback
- Primary Price 15 EUR
- Pages144
- ReadershipProfessional and Scholarly
- Publish StatusPublished
- Original Language TitleNives
- Original Language AuthorsSacha Naspini
- EditionFirst
- Copyright Year2020
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