Imprint
- MacLehose Press
- MacLehose Press
Italy, Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Fiction in translation, Sociology: death & dying
A winner of six major literary prizes, this rich and haunting novel examines the shadowy Sardinian figure of the Accabadora, exploring the boundaries between mercy-killing and murder.
One of Elena Ferrante's best 40 books by female writers
When Maria, the fourth child of a widow, is adopted by the old and childless Bonaria Urrai, her life is instantly transformed - she finally has the love and affection she craves. But her new 'soul mother' is keeping something hidden from her, a secret life that is intimately bound-up with Sardinia's ancient traditions and customs. Midwife to the dying, easing their suffering and sometimes ending it, she is revered and feared in equal measure as the village's Accabadora.
Bonaria tries to shield the girl from the truth about her role as an angel of mercy, until, moved by the pleas of a young man crippled in an accident, she breaks her golden rule of familial consent. The consequences - for Bonaria, for Maria and for the whole village, are devastating - and cause a rift between the two women that can only be bridge by another death.
Translated from the Italian by Silvester Mazzarella
Michela Murgia
Michela Murgia was born in Cabras, Sardinia, in 1972 and has worked as a religious studies teacher, a timeshare saleswoman and an administrator in a power plant. Accabadora firmly establishes her alongside Marcello Fois and Davide Longo at the forefront of a recent renaissance in Italian fiction.
Silvester Mazzarella is a translator of Italian and Swedish literature. He learned English from his mother, Italian from his father, and Swedish while teaching at the University of Helsinki. He now lives in Canterbury.
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