Cover of La strada che va in città
Read Time: ~2.5 hr

La strada che va in città

by Natalia Ginzburg (1990)

About this book

"The Road to the City" and "The Dry Heart." Each is narrated by a young woman who is in some way betrayed by, or the betrayer of, romantic love. In her inimitable, spare, and understated style, Ginzburg--the minimalist--manages to express extraordinary passions, disappointments, and truths of the heart. With a masterful understanding of the human, and particularly female, psyche, Ginzburg turns her meticulous and understated tales into rich, funny, profound, and psychologically gripping landscapes of the human heart.

Setting / LocationGlobal
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreLa strada che va in città Lead Character

Readers who enjoyed this also loved

Cover of My Tender Matador

My Tender Matador

Katherine Silver

"It is spring 1986 in the city of Santiago and Augusto Pinochet is losing his grip on power. In one of the city's many poor neighborhoods, the Queen of the Corner, a hopeless and lonely romantic, embroiders linens for the wealthy and listens to boleros to drown out the gunshots and rioting in the streets. Along comes Carlos, a young, handsome man who befriends the aging homosexual and uses his house to store mysterious boxes and hold clandestine meetings. Thus begins a friendship and a love that will have unexpected though vastly different consequences for both." "My Tender Matador is an extraordinary novel of revolution and forbidden love, and a stirring portrait of Chile at a historical crossroads. By turns funny and profoundly moving, Pedro Lemebel's lyrical prose offers an intimate window into the world and mind of Pinochet himself. As Carlos and the Queen negotiate their unspoken complicity and mismatched affections to the beat of the bolero and the threat of repression, Pinochet contends with revolutionary upstarts, negative world opinion, fascistic reveries, terrifying nightmares, and an endlessly chattering wife who has more respect and affection for her hair stylist than for her husband."--Jacket.

Cover of When in Rome

When in Rome

Amabile Giusti

"As her thirtieth birthday approaches, spirited and unconventional Carlotta is a little nervous. She's just been fired because of her irrepressible frankness, her family is a mess, and her love life is nonexistent. Plus, living in Rome isn't cheap, so she's forced to rent out a room in her apartment to make ends meet. Her new roommate, Luca, a gorgeous writer who can match her wicked sense of humor, has a lot of cons: he's sloppy, he smokes too much, and he has a nasty habit of bringing home a different woman every night. Carlotta doesn't want to admit it, but she's beginning to fall for the charming novelist whose bedroom seems to have a revolving door. After they share an unexpected kiss, she'll do anything to suppress her passion and protect her heart. With her crazy relatives and a new job to deal with, can she muster the courage to confess her true feelings? And will Carlotta find happiness in this rented romance?"--Back cover.

Cover of Secrets of a shoe addict

Secrets of a shoe addict

Beth Harbison

In this deliciously sassy novel, three very different women bond when they find themselves in more than one kind of trouble. It's the story of how sometimes you have a secret that can get you in---and out---of dire straits. It's about romance, friendship, kids, revenge, affairs, and, most of all, a love of the well-heeled things in life.

Cover of The Bride and the Beast

The Bride and the Beast

Teresa Medeiros

Teresa Medeiros makes her hardcover debut in this magnificently sensual and romantic tale filled with passion, humor, and suspense. It is the unforgettable story of two indomitable characters whose love affair is the stuff of which legends are made....Gwendolyn Wilder did not believe in dragons. But the superstitious villagers of Ballybliss did, and so Gwendolyn found herself bound to a post as a sacrificial offering to the Dragon who haunted the ruins of Castle Weyrcraig. Fifteen years earlier, someone had betrayed the Laird of Weyrcraig and his handsome young heir to the English for a thousand pounds in gold. Now the Dragon was demanding that very amount. The frightened Highlanders hoped that instead of gold, the fair virgin would satisfy the beast's insatiable appetite. As for Gwendolyn, she never doubted that the so-called Dragon was a fraud. She knew there was a perfectly good explanation for the mysterious lights seen flickering in the crumbling castle and the unsettling sound of bagpipes drifting through the glens. But as she waited for whoever-or whatever-to claim his prize, she could not help trembling as a furious storm lashed about her...and she saw what appeared to be dark wings and a stream of silver smoke emerge from the shadows. Rumor had it that the Dragon could take the form of a man, and so he did with Gwendolyn-a man who would not show her his face. He carried her into his lair and made her his prisoner, his pampered pet. And while she didn't expect to be eaten by the fire-breathing Dragon of Weyrcraig, neither did she expect to be warmed by his sensuous caresses or devoured by his passionate kisses. The Dragon had demanded gold and the fools had given him this golden-haired maiden. She was the very last thing he expected-and now there was no way he could let her go. She could never know that he was no monster but a flesh-and-blood man who had just laid eyes on the one woman who could slay him. Still, this supremely handsome man of devastating virility was more dangerous than any dragon. He would take it upon himself to enchant the practical Gwendolyn as she had enchanted him. He would weave a spell of sensuous magic around her that would defy all her commonsense notions and tempt her to believe in something even more unlikely than dragons and more powerful than the past that threatened them both-true love.From the Hardcover edition.

La strada che va in città by Natalia Ginzburg | Literally Just Books