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by Domenico Starnone (Author), Jhumpa Lahiri (Translator)
Possessing the keen perceptiveness of John Updike, Domenico Starnone gives his readers a powerful short novel about marriage, family, and the consequences of one's actions upon both.
They were young and in love and they sought freedom from their families. They married, but as middle-age and family obligations set in and the world changed around them, their marital vows seemed to lose their meaning. When he left, she felt gripped by impotent rage; she burned with questions that had no answers. She stayed with the kids in Naples, a city from which she felt a growing estrangement. He transferred from Naples to Rome and moved in with a younger woman.
But the inescapable ties that bind us can be tenacious, stronger than both the wounds inflicted by abandonment and the desire for freedom. The smallest gesture can render those ties painfully evident.
His return is made possible by a mutual and tacit agreement: for the sake of the kids, and for their own sake, they will carry on as if nothing has come between them. But can betrayal ever be swept under the carpet? is it possible to retrace one's steps and regain what was lost? If so, at what price?
Winner of The Bridge Prize for Best Novel 2015
"Starred Review. Scalding and incisive." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. A slim, stunning meditation on marriage, fidelity, honesty, and truth." - Kirkus
"Though Starnone's willingness to let his characters - particularly Aldo - incriminate themselves can be read as writerly confidence, the novel, despite being slim, feels long." - Publishers Weekly
"Starnone suggests that pain may be as compelling as love, and even more enduring. Ties is brief, brilliant and unnerving." - Margot Livesey, author of Mercury
"A cleverly crafted psychological thriller, this slim, intimate novel deftly undoes contemporary gender constructions as well as timeless notions of truth, fidelity, and sacrifice." - Jennifer Tseng, author of Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness
"A superlative novel, Ties offers an x-ray image both of love that is love in name only and of destruction, specifically a home torn apart by something that at first seems to be a tornado but turns out to be Starnone's brilliant writing." - Il Giornale (Italy)
"Ties is a masterfully crafted synthesis of Starnone's storytelling technique and prose style." - Internazionale (Italy)
This information about Ties was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Domenico Starnone is an Italian writer, screenwriter and journalist. He was born in Naples and lives in Rome. He is the author of eight novels, including First Execution (Europa, 2009), Via Gemito, winner of Italy's most prestigious literary prize, the Strega, and numerous books of non-fiction.
Jhumpa Lahiri is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Interpreter of Maladies. Her books include The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, The Lowland, and, most recently, In Other Words, an exploration of language and identity.
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