In “All We Have Been”, Olimpia De Girolamo descends into the bowels of Naples

Published on November 8, 2024 at 05:32. / Modified on November 8, 2024 at 05:33.

Olimpia De Girolamo was born in Naples and lives in Switzerland, in Ticino, where she teaches theater and Italian and co-directs the Agorà theater in Magliaso. This is his news The first step (OpenNet Prize of the Solothurn Literary Days) which is at the origin of All that we have beenher first novel, translated from Italian by Lucie Tardin and published by La Veilleuse. The cover of the book, designed by Caroline Vitelli, a staircase with baroque scrolls which seems to pitch and turn on itself, superbly translates one of the strong tones of the work: vertigo. The one that Anna, the narrator, feels when returning to Naples, her city of childhood and adolescence which she fled twenty years earlier.

It was on the staircase of the building where she grew up that Anna, as a child, gathered the confidences of Ada, her 16-year-old neighbor, whose curves fueled neighborhood gossip. Ada had an affair with a married man, Giovanni, the fruit seller. The novel begins with the tragedy that befalls the young girl, driven into shame and despair, once her secret passion is discovered. Little Anna hears Ada’s body fall in the courtyard of the building: “I too was a little dying that afternoon.”

Want to read all of our articles?

For CHF 29.- per month, enjoy unlimited access to our articles, without obligation!

I subscribe

Already have an account?
Log in