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A Novel
by Cristina Comencini
Manfred, a surly mountaineer recently abandoned by his wife, rents the upstairs apartment in his home in the Dolomites to Marina, a woman from the city, and her difficult young son. Deeply suspicious by nature, especially of women, Manfred spies obsessively on Marina, in whose shortcomings as a mother he finds resonances of his own mother's desertion of him in childhood. When Marina's frustration over her son's refusal to eat or sleep leads her to harm the child, Manfred steps in, and the silent power struggle between them escalates. Yet Manfred's attraction to Marina is as powerful as his distrust.
In this alternately shocking and moving novel, Cristina Comencini has created a complex, psychologically profound portrait of two damaged, vulnerable people and the painful bond that develops between them as they are drawn into each other's worlds.
Paperback original
"Starred Review. Comencini is adept at creating an extraordinary portrait of psychologically scarred characters." – Kirkus Reviews
"Comencini has constructed a novel that is as hard as the mountains in which it is set and as implacable as a true love story should be." - Elle (France)
"Comencini writes the story of generations in an Italy in flux, of family relations, of solitude and love." - La Reppublica (Italy)
"Despite the interesting juxtaposition of this prose with the tropes of a romantic potboiler, the author's rarefied, minimalistic approach is austere to the point of alienation." - Publishers Weekly
This information about When the Night was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Cristina Comencini is an Italian novelist, screenwriter, and director. Her 2005 film, based on her novel La bestia nel cuore, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. She is currently finishing her film adaptation of When the Night.
Marina Harss studied comparative literature and translation at Harvard and New York University. Her translations include Pier Paolo Pasolini's Stories from the City of God (Other Press), as well as Conjugal Love and Two Friends, both by Alberto Moravia. Her translations have appeared in The Latin American Review, Bomb and Brooklyn Rail.
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