Maria Rosaria Valentini
Quattro mele annurche
12×16 cm, 80 pp
ISBN 978-88-87469-68-4
Maria Rosaria Valentini
Four anurkas
Short Story
Four anurkas is a book that should be passed over in silence: any hint or clarification about it would mar its crystalline beauty.
And yet it is a book that deserves to be talked about – maybe in subdued tones. What can we say, then? It’s a very tiny book: 12×16 cm, just 74 pages long. What is it, then? A short novel or a long story? A novel, perhaps, since there are four chapters in it – four chapters, four anurkas. Four chapters and four women – plus one man that is worth four.
People who are fond of concise, inarguable judgments say that this is a “minimalist, pre-feminist book”. What I say is that it is a precious book – a wonderful crystal gem. It is written in prose, and yet crystalline poetry flows all through it. It’s a new book: “Anew I move, and I churn out ideas (fanning out my thoughts)”.
“Sometimes it is incredibly easy to feel loved or at least thought of. You don’t feel good, but you feel better. And that’s enough”.
Quite right.
Franca Cleis (Leggere Donna, July/August 2005)
Maria Rosaria Valentini was born in San Biagio Saracinisco, Italy, in 1963. She graduated in German studies at La Sapienza University of Rome. In 1989, thanks to a scholarship in Art history, she became a resident at the University of Berne. In 1995 she published Un’altra storia da raccontare (“Another story to tell”), a collection of children’s stories.
She has published several books: the short story Quattro mele annurche (“Four anurks”), the collection Di armadilli e charango… (“Of armadillos and charangos…”) and the short novel Antonia – all for the publishing house Gabriele Capelli Editore.
In Italy, she has published the novels Mimose a Dicembre (“December mimosas”, 2013, published by Keller) and Magnifica (2016, published by Sellerio).
In 2003 the Schiller Foundation voted her collection of poems Sassi muschiati (“Moss-grown rocks”) book of the year.
In 2009 Di armadilli e charango… was awarded the European literary prize “Giustino Ferri – David Herbert Lawrence”.
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