The latest edition to my website is
Viola Di Grado‘s Settanta acrilico trenta lana (70% Acrylic 30% Wool). This is a depressing novel about two Italian women, Livia and Camila, mother and daughter, who live in Leeds, England. At the beginning of the novel, Stefano, husband and father of the two is killed in a car crash. The accident plunges the two women into a serious depression. Camila was planning to study Chinese at Leeds University and abandons that, while Livia, a successful flautist, abandons her career. Camila forages clothes from a skip and meets the owner of the clothes shop, Wen, who is Chinese and volunteers to teach her Chinese. It goes wrong, firstly, when she thinks he was after more than teaching her Chinese and then when she meets his somewhat mentally disturbed brother, Jimmy. Despite Livia going off on a photography class, both women seem to struggle to escape their depression. While at times quirky (though not always in a good way), the book is generally fairly sad to read though very well written.