City of Belmont - Ruth Faulkner Public Library

Every family has its own mythology, but in this family the myths don’t match up. Claudia’s mother says she met her husband when she stopped him from jumping off a bridge. Her father says it happened when he saved her from an attempted robbery. Both parents are deaf but couldn’t be more different; they can’t even agree on how they met, much less who needed saving. Claudia comes of age with her brother in this strange, and increasingly estranged, household split between New York City and a village in southern Italy. Without even sign language in common, family communication is chaotic and rife with misinterpretation, by turns hilarious and devastating. Feeling like a stranger to those she loves most, Claudia longs for a freedom she’s not sure exists. She begins to create her own mythology, to construct her version of the story of her life. Claudia Durastanti is the author of four critically acclaimed novels. Strangers I Know (La straniera) won the Premio Pozzale Luigi Russo and the Premio Strega Off, and was a finalist for the Premio Strega. Durastanti is a former Italian Fellow in Literature at the American Academy in Rome, and one of the founders of the Italian Literature Festival in London. She has written for Granta, Bomb and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and is the Italian translator for Ocean Vuong and the most recent edition of The Great Gatsby, among others. For now, she lives in Rome.

BORROWBOX:TXT_3312772

eng

Strangers I Know