For years Elisa has lived in an imaginary world of her own but when her guardian dies, the young Elisa feels compelled to confront the truth of her family’s tortured and dramatic history by telling the story of her mother, Anna, and grandmother, Cesira. Elisa is a seductive, if less than reliable, spinner of stories, and the reader is drawn into a tale of intrigue, treachery and self-delusion, which, as it proceeds, is increasingly revealed to be an exploration of a legacy of political and social injustice.

First published in 1948, Elsa Morante’s debut novel won the Viareggio Prize and earned her the lasting admiration of generations of writers from Italo Calvino and Natalia Ginzburg to Elena Ferrante

Translated by Jenny McPhee