Tuesday 14 February 2023, at 7.00 pm at the Provincial Library of Salerno (Via Laspro 1), as part of the project "THE BOOK THAT UNITES US", promoted by the President of the Province, Francesco Alfieri, by the Provincial Councilor delegated to Cultural Policies, Francesco Morra, by the Director of the Cultural Networks and Systems Sector, Eng. Gioita Caiazzo and curated by Casa della poetry, of Baronissi / Salerno, meeting with the writer Nadia Terranova and her book "Trema la notte" (Einaudi), Elio Vittorini National Literary Prize 2022.
While the distressing images of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria arrive, we will remember, through Terranova's beautiful novel, another terrible earthquake, the one that razed Messina and Reggio to the ground on 28 December 1908 Calabria.
"Trema la notte" is a wide-ranging novel, which addresses the scandal of history. Nadia Terranova returns to the Strait, the mythical place of her writing, and through two unforgettable characters she tells us how, after losing everything, one survives the rubble. It is the evening of December 27, 1908 and in Reggio, eleven-year-old Nicola Fera, tied with ropes to a catafalque in the cellar where he spends every night, dreams of escaping from an oppressive mother, the wife of the largest bergamot producer in the whole of Calabria. On the other side of the sea, Barbara Ruello arrives by train in Messina to attend the performance of Aida. With all the rebellion of her twenties, she plans to escape from her father, who after forcing her to live in a small village on the coast wants her to marry a man she isn't in love with. Their desires for freedom will be granted, but at a very high price. At 5.20 in the morning, the most devastating earthquake in the history of Europe razes the two cities, and Barbara's and Nicola's worlds literally crumble. Now that they have lost everything, they both miss their old prison. Now that they are alone, without affection, they can only wander defenselessly among the ruins, among the other survivors, until fate brings them together: for a few moments, but so violent that they will remain indelible.
In a primordial, pre-conscious way, the two will be united forever.
Nadia Terranova narrates the struggle for survival of a boy and a girl to whom a collective tragedy takes everything away, yet gives an unexpected possibility. That of erecting, over the remains of pain and abuse, an existence that may be crooked, but more similar to the idea of love and family that they have always imagined. Because, while it destroys, the apocalypse reveals, and shows us naked, very human, our need for life that continues to obstinately pulsate.
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Nadia Terranova (Messina, 1978) lives in Rome. For Einaudi he wrote the novels Gli anni converso (2015, winner of numerous awards including the Bagutta Opera Prima, the Brancati and the American The Bridge Book Award, and 2016), Addio ghosts (2018, finalist for the Premio Strega, and 2021) and Trema la notte (2022). It is translated all over the world. He collaborates with the cultural pages of the «Repubblica» and the «Stampa». She writes the weekly column Sirene, portraits of contemporary women on «Vanity Fair», and is the editor of «K», the literary magazine of «Linkiesta».