Tuesday 28 April, 6.30pm
The Italian Library #26
Acqua Sporca. Family novel between Italy and Sri Lanka
Ornella Tarantola in conversation with Nadeesha Uyangoda, author of Acqua sporca.
In Italian
Neela, after thirty years spent in Italy, decides to return to Sri Lanka — a gesture that is not only geographical, but deeply emotional and symbolic. Her long absence has nonetheless left its marks: sisters who have taken different paths, a daughter raised in a foreign country far from her roots, broken bonds, ghosts that return with force. Himali, who raised a daughter alone while holding on to the hope of a political ideal; Pavitra, marked by a failed marriage and silent sacrifices; and Ayesha, Neela’s daughter in Italy, living a precarious and unstable life.
Interweaving the tumultuous history of Sri Lanka with the backdrop of the Italian provinces, the lives of these four women climb paths paved with resentment, anger, and bitterness, as they try to move forward by going back — home. Acqua sporca is a sweeping Italian family fresco between Italy and Sri Lanka, an epic of women that speaks of migration, identity, and family ties.
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Nadeesha Uyangoda is an Italian‑language writer born in Sri Lanka, author of L’unica persona nera nella stanza (66thand2nd, 2021) — winner of the Sila Prize in the “Economy and Society” category and the Special Rapallo Prize “Anna Maria Ortese” — and of Corpi che contano (66thand2nd, 2024). For Einaudi she published Acqua sporca (2025). She is also the creator of the podcast Sulla Razza (Juventus/OnePodcast), has written for national and international media, and curates the column Il libro for Internazionale.