In Farthest Seas
Description
<b>A sharply beautiful and moving masterpiece about love and death by the classic Italian author of <i>A Silence Shared</i></b>
Upon the death of her husband, Innocenzo Monti, Lalla Romano sought to distil the essence of their long life together. The result was <i>In Farthest Seas</i>: a piercingly intimate retelling of the first four years and final four months of their relationship, built from shard-like moments of connection and revelation.
With precise artistry, Romano braids together seemingly minor details - the expressiveness of Innocenzo's hands, the beauty of his face in sleep, a fleeting instance of pallor - that come to reveal the barest truths of life and death. Unsparing yet tender, minimal yet monumental, <i>In Farthest Seas</i> is a startlingly moving elegy for a great love by a vital Italian writer.
<b>Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.</b>
<b>Translated by Brian Robert Moore</b>
Lalla Romano (1906-2001) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and visual artist. Initially more active as a painter, from the 1940s Romano turned increasingly to writing, publishing her first poetry collection in 1941. During the Second World War she returned to her home province of Cuneo and became involved with the partisans. Her first novel, Maria, was published in 1953, and she went on to become one of Italy's most renowned writers, earning the Pavese Prize and the Strega Prize before her death at the age of 94. Her novel <i>A Silence Shared</i>, in Brian Robert Moore's translation, is also available from Pushkin Press.
Reviews / Votes
Romano's miraculous work opens layer by layer, always guarding its innermost mystery. This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read -- Ayseguel Savas, author of 'The Anthropologists' Autofiction at its most elegant... It's a sign of the quality of the writing, and power of Brian Robert Moore's beautiful translation, that even when reading analytically as a reviewer, I often found myself putting the book down still in a dream of its voice * Irish Times * Her language is incredible, essential in its quality... An extraordinarily powerful book -- Jhumpa Lahiri Has a subtle beauty... It is in this depiction of a literary intimacy that blurs the boundary between fiction and biography that In Farthest Seas truly impresses * Spectator * Beautiful. Romano is, for me, the Italian Annie Ernaux -- Sara Baume, author of 'seven steeples' This is a book for those who know that the best time to take a walk in a cemetery is when you're wildly in love -- Catherine Lacey, author of 'Biography of X' An early example of feminist life writing, comparable to the work of not just of Ernaux, but also the memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and the autobiography of Marguerite Duras... A moving meditation on memory and loss * Cleveland Review of Books * Romano's best book, a masterpiece: writing that scorches like a blast furnace * L'Unita * A master of autofiction before the term existed * La Repubblica * A true miracle of a book -- Marina Jarre, author of 'Distant Fathers' Deserves to be read alongside other titans of 20th-century Italian literature such as Natalia Ginzburg, Cesare Pavese and Italo Calvino (all of whom knew and revered her) * Spectator * A great Italian writer... Her writing fascinates because so much of it circles around how we construct and remember the lives we lead, those moments and elements that are mysterious and impossible to communicate * LA Review of Books * Romano writes in a dreamlike present, which is to say the present that appears to us in dreams... clear and full of shadows, concrete and out of reach -- Natalia Ginzburg Moore's translation fills a hole in English translation from an essential contemporary Italian writer... A masterclass in the art of translation... Poignant, and at times breathtakingly honest * Reading in Translation * Lingered long in my mind -- Ronan Hession * Irish Times, Books of the Year *More details
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Brian Robert Moore has translated works by acclaimed Italian authors such as Michele Mari, Lalla Romano and Goliarda Sapienza. For his translations, he has received the O. Henry Prize and two PEN Translates Awards, among other honours. His translation of Lalla Romano's A Silence Shared was runner-up for the 2024 John Florio Prize and shortlisted for the 2023 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.