Claudia Durastanti

Who taught you to talk? And in what language do you dream? The daughter of deaf parents has a wild but fragile childhood in New York City. When she was six, her parents separated, and her mother moved with her to the Italian countryside. Even as an adult, the heroine tries to find new ways in her study, soul-searching, or love. Not surprisingly, she seeks relief from feeling disillusioned, unequal, and distant in the realm of words and art. With autobiographical elements, the novel blends snippets of memories, reflections, and true and imagined stories to create a colourful history of her family straddling the spectacular cities of Rome and London, the Italian quarter of Brooklyn, and a picturesque but remote small Italian village in the Basilicata region.

Published by Kniha Zlín, 2022

The Italian writer Claudia Durastanti (* 1984) was born in New York and grew up between Brooklyn and Basilicata in southern Italy. She graduated in Cultural Anthropology from the Sapienza University of Rome. In her career, she has contributed to numerous periodicals with literature and music articles; she co-founded the Italian Literature Festival in London. Claudia Durastanti is the author of four critically acclaimed novels and a translator.