"In these spare, haunting novellas, Natalia Ginzburg displays again the narrative skill, resonantly understated style, themes, and wisdom that have mad her "Italy's foremost woman writer and...one of Italy's finest writers of any kind" (Newsday) Both stories recount the breakup of families and the souring of the dreams that gave them coherence. Each is told in the quiet voice of a young woman, the daughter and sister whom family life has somehow left wounded and unchosen. Each is also the story of that voice's perseverance"--
