The book
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF FALL 2021
Following the international success of Ties and the National Book Award-shortlisted Trick, Domenico Starnone gives readers another searing portrait of human relationships and human folly.
Pietro and Teresa’s love affair is tempestuous and passionate. After yet another terrible argument, she gets an idea: they should tell each other something they’ve never told another person, something they’re too ashamed to tell anyone. They will hear the other’s confessions without judgment and with love in their hearts. In this way, Teresa thinks, they will remain united forever, more intimately connected than ever.
A few days after sharing their shameful secrets, they break up. Not long after, Pietro meets Nadia, falls in love, and proposes. But the shadow of the secret he confessed to Teresa haunts him, and Teresa herself periodically reappears, standing at the crossroads, it seems, of every major moment in his life. Or is it he who seeks her out?
Starnone is a master storyteller and a novelist of the highest order. His gaze is trained unwaveringly on the fault lines in our public personas and the complexities of our private selves. Trust asks how much we are willing to bend to show the world our best side, knowing full well that when we are at our most vulnerable we are also at our most dangerous.
The author
Domenico Starnone
Domenico Starnone is an Italian writer, screenwriter and journalist. He was born in Naples and lives in Rome. He is the author of thirteen works of fiction, including First Execution (Europa, 2009), Via Gemito, winner of Italy's most prestigious literary prize, the Strega.
Press
- Nov 10 2021
“Proves one of the novel’s best gambits.”
— Washington Post - Nov 9 2021
“The Terrible Powers of Self-Deception.”
— Los Angeles Review of Books - Nov 9 2021
“A sweeping examination of aging, love, and success.”
— Booklist - Nov 8 2021
“...cuts like a scalpel to the core of its characters.”
— Los Angeles Times - Nov 6 2021
“The book that taught me what translation was.”
— The New Yorker - Nov 5 2021
“Electrifying.”
— Financial Times