Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us
> FAQ Home
> Genre: Fiction > “He breathed in my face the coffee he’d just drunk, mingled with the odor of his gums.”

“He breathed in my face the coffee he’d just drunk, mingled with the odor of his gums.”

A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio

August 10, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

1970s Naples: a thirteen year old girl of privilege is suddenly removed from her seaside home and returned to a cramped and dirty apartment outside the city.  The key word here is “returned”; our heroine has been sent “home” to a place that she never knew.

She spent her entire life living with her glamorous mother and policeman father, only to have that reality shattered in one afternoon when the man she knew as her father bundles her and all of her belongings into the car an drives her to her Mamma. The man who was her father is her uncle; the woman who was her mother is her aunt.

Her birth family is far from welcoming; they are just as disgusted by her world of wealth as she is by their world of violence and squalor. Instead of dance classes, she now dances around attacks from her brothers and strikes from her parents. She does not understand why she has been placed here, and her family does not understand her in the slightest.

A Girl Returned was translated by the same woman who translates Elena Ferrante’s work, and I read this piece while in the middle of My Brilliant Friend. The themes are similar; generational trauma, everyday violence, the almost unattainable promise of an education- and the spare style reflects back towards Ferrante’s work as well. Fun Fact: Donatella Di Pietrantonio is now a pediatric dentist!

I enjoyed this piece, and I am currently enthralled by My Brilliant Friend as well. I am on a bit of a volatile-midcentury-Italian kick; I adored The Flame Throwers and I recently devoured all of Danny Boyle’s Trust miniseries (about the JPG III kidnapping). If you can think of any other books in this general category please do not hesitate to let me know!

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Ann Goldstein, bildungsroman, coming-of-age, domestic violence, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, ebook, Education, europa edition, family, generational trauma, Italian language, Italy, L'Arminuta, Naples, Sisters, translated

andtheIToldYouSos's CBR12 Review No:88 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Ann Goldstein, bildungsroman, coming-of-age, domestic violence, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, ebook, Education, europa edition, family, generational trauma, Italian language, Italy, L'Arminuta, Naples, Sisters, translated ·
· 0 Comments

About andtheIToldYouSos

CBR13 participantCBR13 CommentsCBR12 participantCBR11 participant

I'm sorry that I didn't build you a stronger ship, young Rose View andtheIToldYouSos's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • Ashlie Daigle on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodDid you see the news that the Nimona film adaptation was cancelled? Sob.
  • markabaddon on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodSame. Her interpretation of vampirism was soooo cool to me as a teenager.
  • esme on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodOMG- the Great Brain- I wonder if it holds up? I’ll have to see. I also used the love the Three Investigators. And Encyclopedia Brown....
  • andtheIToldYouSos on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy Childhoodalso- Louis Sachar's HOLES! it came out when I was in middle school and I loved it, and my current students love the movie, but...
  • andtheIToldYouSos on CBR Diversions – It’s Never too Late to Have a Happy ChildhoodHOW DID I FORGET PINKWATER?! aggh! Lizard Music, Snarkout Boys, Worms of Kukimilia... I re-read that section of the library over and over again
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in