Stranger

Original title: Strangera

Author: Aidala, Marta

Publication Date:

September 2024

Pages:

306

Original language and publisher

Italian | Guanda

Territories Handled

Netherlands, Scandinavia, World English

Territories Sold

France (Calmann Levy (preempt))

Genres

Debut Novel, Literary Fiction

Number of copies sold:

50.000 print run

Stranger

Original title: Strangera

Author: Aidala, Marta

Synopsis

Aidala’s novel proceeds with the slow and sure pace of a hike through the peaks. The page generates the salutary discomfort caused by radical novels unwilling to please the reader.’ — Fabrizio Ottaviani – Il Giornale

‘Very well orchestrated reports of contrary tenors in the slow novel-like progress of sensations and emotions, cadenced in chorus by a constantly personified landscape.’ — Ermanno Paccagnini – la Lettura

‘The novel contains one of the most beautiful love stories in our current literature.’
— Filippo La Porta – Robinson

‘Aidala makes her debut with this book, and time will tell how much her star will continue to make new eyes and desires and even dreams. But in the meantime we have seen a new star shine.’— Alberto Infelise – La Stampa

‘The truth is that in the mountains almost everyone is a stranger. You can belong to different worlds but it’s the place you choose that becomes your home.’ — Deborah Ameri – iO Donna

‘One seems to smell the smell of high pastures and a fire in the fireplace while reading Marta Aidala’s La strangera, an out-of-the-ordinary debut novel.’ — Cristina De Stefano – Elle

‘The mountain unites worlds that would most likely not be able to meet in the valley. In this and it’s great beauty.’— Laura Pezzino – Natural Style

The mountains are immense women, yet many bear the names of men.

“A stranger.” It was that man who first called me that, and I wanted to answer what I would tell everyone else later, that up there in the mountains I was just as much of a stranger as they were.”

Take your life and go – to understand yourself, find a future, and no longer go down but stay. These are the reasons why, one morning in May, Beatrice leaves Turin to move to the mountains. Those mountains that, she is sure, are women even if they often have male names. Women like her, who just arrived at the refuge of Barba, a gruff man with a mysterious past, feel rejected, as a human and a stranger.

Marta Aidala has the courage of a clear voice that lets gestures and events speak, the sounds of the woods, the smells, the light of a sky high above the peaks. And she knows how to tell in the most concrete details a new epic, that of a girl who goes after her freedom despite hesitations and fears, a girl who searches for herself on the paths and among the men of the mountains, in a world that she feels is hers even if the old traditions look at her with suspicion.
With fear and curiosity, as Elbio looks at her, the young herdsman with whom Beatrice will establish a deep bond, made of shyness and enthusiasm, in that fragile and poignant intimacy that exists between two people who mirror and recognize each other.
When the summer ends, Beatrice decides not to follow Elbio down the valley, but instead stays with Barba in the refuge, a place that now, perhaps, she feels she can call home. But the snowless winter will reveal an unexpected mountain to her, pushing her to question everything, and questioning her once again about her future, about the person she wants to be and the places to which she feels she belongs.

Marketing Information

  • English translation available (made by DeepL)