The author in conversation with Isabella D’Amico
In Italian
82 years old Clotilde Brunori Princi is as elegant, immaculate and eccentric as ever: age and poor health have affected her beauty but not her strong personality. Her daughter Olivia is in the middle of a midlife crisis: vegetarian, fitness-obsessed, she takes on running to avoid thinking about her life, trapped between her distant husband, grown-up children and difficult mother.
One autumn morning, Clotilde disappears from Villa del Grifo, the family residence on the hills near Florence. It is not one of the brief and much maligned escapades of her youth, this time something painful in her past, which has always been hidden behind a façade of wealth and privilege, is catching up with her and she needs to face up to it. Olivia finds herself unwillingly involved and will have to make a decision which may change her destiny.
Caterina Soffici was born in Florence. She is a columnist for Italian daily newspaper La Stampa, and also writes for literary magazine Tuttolibri and Vanity Fair. She has written Ma le donne no (2010), Italia yes Italia no (2014) e il romanzo Nessuno può fermarmi (2017), all published in Italy by Feltrinelli. She believes you can change the world thanks to the power of the words and for this reason holds writing courses at the Ministry of Stories, the East London workshop that teaches disadvantaged children how to use creativity, memory and storytelling. She lives between London and a small village in the Alps with her husband, two children and a dog.
Isabella d’Amico studied Literature at the University of Rome La Sapienza. She has worked at the press office of publishing house Adelphi, then, after an internship at the «New York Review of Books» , from 1997 to 2015 has worked as Head of Press at the publishing house Bompiani (RCS Libri) in Rome. She has curated the publication of Eppure, forse, domani. Carteggio Fedele d’Amico – Rudolf Arnheim 1938-1990 (Archinto, Milano, 2000), Nemici come prima. Carteggio Luciano Berio- Fedele d’Amico 1957-1989 (Archinto, Milano, 2003) e Leonetta Cecchi Pieraccini, Agendine 1911-1929 (Sellerio, 2015). In 2016 she co-founded and is currently co-head of the literary agency «d’f Agency» with Valeria Frasca. She lives and works between London and Italy.
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