4.0
Forbidden Notebook
ByPublisher Description
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
“Powerful.” —The New Yorker
“Brilliant.” —The Wall Street Journal
"Astounding." —NPR
“Forceful, clear and morally engaged.” —The Washington Post
“Subversive.” —The New York Times Book Review
"An exquisite, tormented howl." —The Financial Times
"Quick, propulsive, and addictive." —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Gripping.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A remarkable story.” —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Wrenching, sardonic.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“As relevant today as it was in postwar Italy." —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
With a foreword by Jhumpa Lahiri, Forbidden Notebook is a classic domestic novel by the Italian-Cuban feminist writer Alba de Céspedes, whose work inspired contemporary writers like Elena Ferrante.
In this modern translation by acclaimed Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein, Forbidden Notebook centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome.
Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son. As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis’ facade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family’s fragile fabric apart.
An exquisitely crafted portrayal of domestic life, Forbidden Notebook recognizes the universality of human aspirations.
“Powerful.” —The New Yorker
“Brilliant.” —The Wall Street Journal
"Astounding." —NPR
“Forceful, clear and morally engaged.” —The Washington Post
“Subversive.” —The New York Times Book Review
"An exquisite, tormented howl." —The Financial Times
"Quick, propulsive, and addictive." —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Gripping.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A remarkable story.” —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Wrenching, sardonic.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“As relevant today as it was in postwar Italy." —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
With a foreword by Jhumpa Lahiri, Forbidden Notebook is a classic domestic novel by the Italian-Cuban feminist writer Alba de Céspedes, whose work inspired contemporary writers like Elena Ferrante.
In this modern translation by acclaimed Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein, Forbidden Notebook centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome.
Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son. As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis’ facade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family’s fragile fabric apart.
An exquisitely crafted portrayal of domestic life, Forbidden Notebook recognizes the universality of human aspirations.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities170 Reviews
4.0
Olivia
Created about 6 hours agoShare
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“Full-body goosebumps. A quiet and heart-wrenching exploration of selfhood, class and gender, filtered through the eyes of a 1950s Italian housewife.”
猫田
Created 3 days agoShare
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Irene
Created 4 days agoShare
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Barkless Leh00tsky
Created 6 days agoShare
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“Poignant, terrifying, canny. The usual hazards of opening one’s self up to reflection like so many pieces of a smashed mirror: spiderwebbed epiphanies swept up by socially conditioned despair. But there’s a clean floor below and room for a new window to meditate. Demonstrates that any great book is bound to answer whatever questions we ask (however cryptic those answers may be). Seeking my own copy.”
Maria Lourenço Pelotte
Created 9 days agoShare
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“Sempre me fez muita confusão quando alguém me diz "quando for mãe/pai, serei/farei..." porque parto sempre do pressuposto que uma experiência tão avassaladora não nos pode deixar passar por ela sem que nos tornemos diferentes ou que, pelo menos, daremos por nós a olhar para o espelho e a ver no reflexo alguém totalmente diferente. Este livro provou-me isso mesmo, que a maternidade/paternidade trás consigo doçura e algum alento mas também revolução e angustia. E que, enquanto estamos focados na criação dos filhos, há toda uma vida que acontece, que às vezes passa e só um dia mais tarde é que damos conta dela.
Este livro retrata uma mulher que vive em Roma, em 1950 mas deu-me muitas vezes a sensação de que poderia ter sido escrito recentemente. Valéria é uma mulher casada há vários anos, mãe de dois jovens adultos, trabalha num escritório e mantém a ordem nas lidas domésticas. Um dia, por impulso e às escondidas de todos, decide comprar um caderno. E este ato que parece tão mundano passa a ser o fio condutor de toda a história: durante 6 meses, Valéria torna este caderno no seu diário, onde escreve os seus desejos mais íntimos, as suas angustias e intrigas enquanto mãe e um exercício muito grande de introspecção, com reflexões da relação com a sua mãe, do seu casamento, da sua relação com os filhos, da vida que tem e da que desejaria ter. À medida que traduz a sua vida em palavras e as coloca neste diário, a sua vida toma uma nova dimensão e com ela nasce uma nova Valéria sob a pena de que tomando as rédeas e fazendo escolhas mais ousadas, poderão destruir um lar e que farão de qualquer mulher, uma pessoa mal vista na sociedade.”About Alba de Céspedes
Alba de Céspedes (1911–1997) was a bestselling Italian-Cuban feminist writer greatly influenced by the cultural developments that led to and resulted from World War II. In 1935, she was jailed for her anti-fascist activities in Italy. Two of her novels were also banned—Nessuno Torna Indietro (1938) and La Fuga (1940). In 1943, she was again imprisoned for her assistance with Radio Partigiana in Bari, where she was a Resistance radio personality known as Clorinda. After the war, she moved to Paris, where she lived until her death in 1997.
Other books by Alba de Céspedes
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