Ginzburg’s experiences of the war, and the experiences of her characters, differ in a key way from my family’s, of course.

It perhaps has a different focus from the family oriented book this is, but there’s that same sense of an author drawing on their own experience.Despite the disapproval of the rest of her family, who are unaware that she is pregnant, she leaves with Cenzo for a village in the South. Užliūlioja ta šeimyninė rutina, ir nors žinai, kad fone karas - vis tiek labiau pergyveni dėl kasdieninių rūpesčių ir jausmų.

In 1952, when the book was first published, many Italian readers must have thought that ‘ nostri’ included them. Ginzburg’s work is concerned, it seems to me more than anything, with the distinction between what is right and what is wrong. Yet, despite this confidence and optimism, the ravages of the war remained with my grandparents their entire lives – and the impact was felt by their children and grandchildren. Pressburger doesn’t make us want Braun to succeed exactly, but he expertly ramps up the tension so we simply must find out which deserved outcome lies ahead, as Braun gets closer to escaping Europe and justice and simultaneously learns more about how close they are to catching him. It's an unwanted pregnancy that drives the plot and determines circumstances rather than the war itself.This novel seems to be seeking the answers to these questions, or perhaps, it exists to blatantly show this. At my maternal grandparents’ ruby wedding in 1981, when I was eleven years old, my grandfather gave a speech in which he mentioned the people who could not be with us to celebrate.

To save her reputation, she marries an eccentric older family friend, Cenzo Rena, and they move to his village in the south.Completing the family are younger brother, Giustino, and an eccentric old maid, Signora Maria, a former companion to the children’s deceased grandmother. At times the story is Jerry Springer-like as when one daughter marries the crazy older man, a family friend who lives in the richer house, who was having an affair with her mother. The father of one of the two central families is writing his memoirs, titled Nothing But the Truth, which “contained fiery attacks on the fascists and the king. A sua narrativa é esgotante e instila o medo de nos vermos perante semelhante situação onde nada é preto ou branco.

One knows there won't be the intimidating burden of making the described world appear authentic, of getting all the period detail right. They were talking politics in the sitting room, they were once again doing a dangerous, secret thing, as the book of memoirs had been. ive been wanting to get into more italian literature in translation ever since reading elena ferrante and natalia ginzburg sounds like the perfect author to explore! That’s the most ‘major-league’ of Ginzburg’s works that I’ve read so far, and I think widely recognised as her masterpiece, or at least one of them. By sheer coincidence I’ve been reading books set during the Second World War that view events from the Italian perspective – Iris Origo’s two diaries, important pieces of work because they are a first-hand account that captures the immediacy of the events unfolding around her; and All Our Yesterdays, a work of fiction by Natalia Ginzburg also set during the same period but written in the years following the war.

In part 2 of the novel, starting in mid-war, the focus shifts to the impoverished rural Italian south. But subsequently, Danilo is arrested, whipping up a frenzy in the family to burn all evidence and material pointing to their dissident activities in which Anna also takes part. With air raids, constant movement of soldiers and distant bombs going off, the two families prepare their basement for survival mode.