"De Cespedes' work has lost none of its subversive force” —The New York Times Book Review * "De Céspedes’s melancholy testament to a hidden life feels timeless and vital." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) From the author of Forbidden Notebook, Alba de Céspedes, a richly told novel she called “the story of a great love and of a crime.” As she looks back on her life, Alessandra Corteggiani recalls her youth during the rise of fascism in Italy, the resistance, and the fall of Mussolini, the lives of the women in her family and her working-class neighborhood, rigorously...