Letter of Recommendation: Non ti muovere

I'm finally reading Margaret Mazzantini's novel Non ti muovere and I am thrilled to say I am doing so courtesy of my local library!

(There are not a lot of Italian books in the original language there, but I see any books in Italian as a positive thing).

I've seen the movie and I must confess that I see Sergio Castellitto at almost every turn in the novel since he played the narrator in the 2004 film dramatization.

That may contribute to my assessment -- who knows? -- but I feel like Mazzantini's prose very deftly creates a convincing male narrator and main character.

The voice is so strong that I can overlook what this character does, which is allow himself to serially rape a woman he meets at a coffee shop one day who invites him to use her phone. And not just serially rape but convince himself that he loves her and that these first encounters are the start of a relationship. Well, in fact they are, perhaps because the woman is an Albanian immigrant who lives in a hovel and works as a prostitute.

What's more, the relationship unfolds while his own fledgling family needs him.

So he's quite the flawed protagonist but Mazzantini's intimate gaze into his character is mesmerizing. What else has she written? I have no idea -- but plan to find out.

-30-