Your Little Matter

"Extraordinary." The Guardian Rome 1965. A man and a woman, excluded from Italian society, abandon their eight month old daughter in the Villa Borghese and take extreme action. In 2021, that child, author Maria Grazia Calandrone, sets out to discover the truth of what happened, examining the places where her mother lived and suffered. Your Little Matter is an intimate reconstruction of the life and death of a parent, a shocking insight into the real lives of marginalised women from the Italian South in the relatively recent past, and the revelation of a cause celebre that was a catalyst for social change in Italy. Combining poetic and philosophical insight with forensic investigation, the completely personal with the very public, the book tells a devastating story of how the institutionalised callousness of state and society can lead to tragedy, and how the dogged pursuit of personal choice can lead to liberation. Your Little Matter was shortlisted for the 2023 Premio Strega.

About the Author :
MARIA GRAZIA CALANDRONE is a poet, writer, journalist, playwright, visual artist, teacher, author and RAI host. She writes for Il Corriere della Sera and 7. She has written numerous books of poetry for Mondadori “Specchio” and Crocetti. Her prose works include a novel about her adoptive mother, Splendi come vita (Ponte alle Grazie 2021), which was a finalist for the Strega Prize, the Trio Strega Giovani Prize, and the Bergamo and Comisso awards. ANTONELLA LETTIERI is a London-based translator working into English and Italian. She was the 2023 National Centre for Writing Emerging Translator Mentee for Italian and worked with Howard Curtis. Her translations have appeared in Asymptote and she was awarded the first prize in the 2023 John Dryden Translation Competition.

Review :
‘Calandrone’s new work establishes her as a high-quality novelist and a masterful storyteller of Italy in the 50s and 60s.’ Franco Buffoni, Strega Prize 2023 ‘An unforgettable story of a woman’s fight against violence and prejudice to find her own path in life.’ Francesca de Sanctis, Venerdi di Ripubblica ‘An incredible story, lyrically told, of the downtrodden and defeated in this world.’ Federica de Paolis, tuttolibri, La Stampa The extraordinary book ... spent weeks on the Italian bestseller lists and was shortlisted for the country’s top literary prize, the Strega. Just as Elena Ferrante’s Naples Quartet revealed the harsh reality of life for young women in Italy’s poorer regions, Calandrone’s memoir gives an unsparing view of the brutal treatment of women in desperate times that resonated powerfully with readers. Masterfully navigating the sea of choices often instigated by the ambiguity of Calandrone’s words that require different translation approaches depending on the register and context, Lettieri set off on a veritable translating tour-de-force which demanded creativity, attention to scientific details, intercultural awareness, and prehensility of thought. She has demonstrated to possess all those qualities in copious amounts, and we are very grateful to her for the gift of Your Little Matter’s poignant English version.