Up-Lit

Bina, an octogenarian left on her own, and Marta, a twenty-five-year-old from a district in the city’s outskirts, who puts her up, are the unforgettable protagonists of this debut novel about loneliness and frailty, that allows us to rediscover the joy of caring for someone.

One winter afternoon, eighty-three year-old Bina is left on her own. She is waiting for her grandson Fabio in the Cinghio park, in the outskirts of a respectable town. Marta, twenty-five, watches her through her window, sees her grow stiff on a broken bench, and decides to put her up that night and the one after that. And the one after that, too.

All the residents in the building gather around her: Gianna, the neighbour who talks to an imaginary sister, Ljuba, old Maria’s carer, and Benny, a security guard and Marta’s childhood friend.

A couple of streets further up, Fabio, Bina’s grandson, is in serious trouble. So he knocks on the door of Genny, the prostitute, a damaged, disillusioned creature of the Cinghio district, who picks up other people’s pieces without asking questions.

Bina and Fabio spend days living parallel lives, in limbo, in a harsh, unfamiliar place, waiting for something to happen.

And something will happen. It will shuffle the cards and deal new cards to the players in a haphazard,  American-style game of poker, with an exceptional croupier: fate.

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The powerful story of a mother who, during World War II, does everything in her power to protect her daughters, turning survival into a daily art form. Amidst poverty, discrimination and violence, Sara Gambazza portrays the strength of women capable of imagining a different future and claiming their freedom despite adversity.

Parma, 1922. Anita is a prostitute, orphaned of her mother and with a father she has only ever known through stories. Her daughters, Ninfa and Rosa, are forced to grow up far too quickly among their mother’s clients, with gunfire echoing over their poor neighbourhood. When Italy enters the war, the three move into a brothel, where Anita continues her work, haunted by the fear that her daughters might one day follow in her footsteps, and deeply worried about Ninfa’s dark gift: the unsettling ability to smell death. And yet, within this unexpected refuge, Ninfa and Rosa discover a different kind of family: a community bound not by blood, but by loyalty and love – a network of humble people willing to protect one another even in the darkest hours.

The end of the war brings both loss and the fragile promise of a new beginning. Ninfa seeks knowledge and freedom; Rosa longs for peace and stability, once for all. Both will find the courage to love and to be loved, to accept who they are and to honour the memory of their past, never forgetting the price paid by their mother – and by themselves – to become the women they are.

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