Our personalized quarantine book recommendations, round 7 may 8, 2020 by emily temple. In a deeply personal article, italian author elena varvello looks back at the creation of her novel can you hear me. It is a comingofage story, but i am struggling to find any suspense. Buy can you hear me a gripping holiday read set during a scorching italian summer 1st edition by varvello, elena, valente, alex isbn. Elia furenti is sixteen, living in a secluded house with his parents. That is, until the day the beautiful, damaged anna the mother of his new friend. It is the summer of 1978, and elia furenti is a 16yearold boy living in the small northern italian town of ponte. While specifying the year and the season, naming a seminal character, this opening sentence is a tell, a revealing piece of information most fans of suspense dont appreciate unless. Ryan summers walked into three rivers college and killed women, then himself. Can you hear me a gripping holiday read set during a. Elena varvello is a poet whose short story collection was nominated for. An unbearably hot summer, like so many otherswilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls. She has published two collections of poetry, perseveranza e salutare and atlanti.
Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. The story is a tense exploration of the mysteries of the human heart, the weight of paranoia and the. The author is waving a story that comes from the past, shining the present and revealing a heartbreaking future. It is also hard to believe this novel is italian author elena varvello s debut, such is the eloquence of the writing, rendered. Like her namesake ferrante, elena varvello knows how to keep readers hooked.
Elena varvello was billed as being the next elena ferrante. Had he just read nothing of much quality or was he right. Its part thriller, part coming of age novel set in northern italy in 1978 and follows a sixteenyearold boy elia furenti, whose father. I love books i can read all in one sitting maybe with a break to make tea and can you hear me. But then again everyone seems to be hiding something in this novel everythings out of place. This novel is an intriguing piece of literary fiction with an underlying mystery that fuels the actions elia will take during the course of the summer. Five novels born from the mother child bond may 5, 2020 by jane ciabattari. That is, until the day the beautiful, damaged anna the mother of his new friend stefano returns to ponte and firmly propels elia to the edge of adulthood.
Summer 2017 sofa spotlight summer reads the literary. The novel is carried by both the brilliance of its setting and by a scattering of emotional truths. Can you hear me a viciously gripping holiday read set. An unbearably hot summer like many others, wilted flowers and trips to. It is nothing more than a comingofage story, passive and pedestrian at that.
The result is an engrossing and troubling book that hangs big questions on the taut wire of a gripping plot. A man with a loving, submissive wife and a typical teenage son kidnaps a girl and, even after hes eventually caught, doesnt ever seem to recognize the immorality of his actions. It maintains a sense of tension and dread throughout can you hear me. A novel of crime and darkness that eschews straightforward domestic noir guardian move over ferrante, theres a new e. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Murder on the left bank by cara black, can you hear me by elena varvello and a million drops by victor del arbol in this weeks crime fiction roundup. When my husband raved about it saying it was the best book hed read in the last 20 years i knew i had to read it. From brian mcgilloway to elena varvello, the best new. The story is also billed as being an unputdownable thriller, the viciously gripping pageturner of summer 2017. Once a busier area, the local factory has closed down, leaving many residents scrambling to find new jobs or down.
In the august of 1978, the summer i met anna trabuio, my father took a girl into the woods. In particular, she explores the way in which writing the novel provided her with a way to understand and reflect the life of her father and his private struggles with depression. Just as gracie had run out of money and was about to book her flight home to australia, shed been rescued. A viciously gripping holiday read set during a scorching italian summer by elena varvello available from rakuten kobo.
Readers will devour this novel in one sitting as i did, then chew it over long. Elena varvellos prose is spare, suiting the layered narrative well as its shifts in time. Elena varvello is a poet, short story writer and novelist whose work has won her critical acclaim in her native italy, including a nomination for the premio strega, the italian equivalent of the man booker prize. Can you hear me is published on the th july 2017 by two roads. His worried mother knows something is wrong but loves her husband too much to confront him and elia is contending with his own hormonal. Elia is a bored teenager struggling with growing up in a small northern italian community in the 1970s. The story is a tense exploration of the mysteries of the human heart, the weight of paranoia and the often destructive nature of love and blind devotion. It is an unbearably hot summer, not unlike many others. Interestingly though, we discover the book s protagonist is a 16yearold boy. Few are the writers that can draw me to a book from the very first line, elena varvello is now one of those authors. I am halfway through this and i am hugely enjoying this rich, intense read with arresting prose which makes it impossible to put down. Read a mother for his daughter by ally blake available from rakuten kobo.
I really felt for the teenage boy whose father is going mad and whose mother colludes. The question is one that cries out to be answered by ryans mother, moira. Fabio geda, internationally bestselling author of in the sea there are crocodiles. Elena varvello has written a comingofage novel different from all others, an elegantly written and atmospheric pageturner about love, fear, and the discovery. Its a powerful book that reminds me of some of joyce carol oates. Alongside the central mystery is a coming of age story and the two themes mesh together seamlessly. A thriller, a mystery, a comingofage story that utterly gripped me from beginning to end and the translation from the original italian never for a second gets in the way. In august of 1978, the summer i met anna trabuio, my father took a girl into the woods. Elena varvello, translated from the italian by alex valente two roads july. This year has been so outstanding for publishing, currently i have a few different titles on the go. In the introduction to this stunning novel about mental illness, family secrets and the way unconditional love can blind us from the truth, italian author elena varvello reveals that writing the story was a way to deal with her relationship with her own bipolar father. The narrator, 16yearold elia, begins by telling you the climax of the story. She teaches creative writing at the scuola holden in turin. In the following passage, we learn of a troubled family, living in an economically depressed town, and closely guarding their secrets.