Heart guidance and place

Author: Susanna Tamaro
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-04-01
Features: This is a long letter written in the form of a diary by an elderly woman who is about to leave the world to her runaway granddaughter. The author, with lyrical and moving prose, vividly describes the emotional experiences of three generations, three women. It includes the grandmother's passionless marriage, her encounter and love affair with a hydropath, the mother's secret past and tragic death, the root of the granddaughter's infinite confusion, and the sharp conflicts between generations. This book is the breakthrough work of Susanna Tamaro, a prominent Italian female writer of the 1990s, published in 1994. Upon its release, it caused a sensation, selling 2.5 million copies in Italy and becoming the top-selling book of the year. It has now been translated into over 30 foreign languages. In 1997, it was adapted into a film and received unanimous praise from readers both at home and abroad. An Italian literary critic called it "the most sensational page in post-war Italian literature and publishing." An American critic described it as Italy's "The Bridges of Madison County."