The Hunger of Women - Marosia Castaldi

Rosa, midway \nthrough life, is alone. Her husband passed away long ago, and her cosmopolitan \ndaughter is already out the door, keen to marry and move to the city. At loose \nends, Rosa decides to transplant herself to the flat, foggy Lombardy provinces \nfrom her native Naples and there finds a way to renew herself--by opening a \nrestaurant, and in the process coming to a new appreciation of the myriad \nrelationships possible between women, from friendship to caregiving to \ncollaboration to emotional and physical love. Unconventional in style and yet rivetingly \naccessible, The Hunger of Women is a novel infused with the pleasures of \nthe body and the little shocks of daily life. Made up of Rosa's observations, \nreflections, and recipes, it tracks her mental journey back to reconnect with \nher own embattled mother's age-old wisdom, forward to her daughter's \ninconceivable future, and laterally to the world of Rosa's new community of \nlovers and customers. A tribute not only to the tradition of women's writing on \nhearth and home but to the legacy of such boundary-breaking feminist writers as \nGertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, and Hélène Cixous, The Hunger of Women is \nnothing less than a literary feast. \nWinner of the ALTA National Translation Award in Prose A tribute not only to the tradition of women's writing on hearth and home but to the legacy of such boundary-breaking feminist writers as Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, and Hélène Cixous, The Hunger of Women is nothing less than a literary feast. Rosa, midway through life, is alone. Her husband passed away long ago, and her cosmopolitan daughter is already out the door, keen to marry and move to the city. At loose ends, Rosa decides to transplant herself to the flat, foggy Lombardy provinces from her native Naples and there finds a way to renew herself--by opening a restaurant, and in the process coming to a new appreciation of the myriad relationships possible between women, from friendship to caregiving to collaboration to emotional and physical love. Unconventional in style and yet rivetingly accessible, The Hunger of Women is a novel infused with the pleasures of the body and the little shocks of daily life. Made up of Rosa's observations, reflections, and recipes, it tracks her mental journey back to reconnect with her own embattled mother's age-old wisdom, forward to her daughter's inconceivable future, and laterally to the world of Rosa's new community of lovers<