{"title":"Margherita Giacobino","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"ridiculous-age-book-margherita-giacobino-9781915568281","title":"The Ridiculous Age","description":"While the radio announcer reports new conflicts and atrocities every day and beggars line the pavements outside her comfortable apartment, the old woman struggles to maintain her grip on life. It is a ridiculous age, she tells an acquaintance. Almost everyone she used to know and love is dead. Only her ancient cat and her best friend Malvina are left, and Malvina is rapidly sliding into senility. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the old woman's real and constant grief is the loss of her lover, Nora, ten years ago. In this disintegrating world, her lifeline is an immigrant worker, Gabriela, the home help. But Gabriela is being hounded for money by her dysfunctional family, which includes the self-styled 'terrorist' Dorin. How far can an elderly and cultivated woman, still feisty if increasingly world-weary and prickly, allow herself to be drawn into the affairs of a young woman she does not entirely trust? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA brilliant evocation of the challenges of old age, Margherita Giacobino's caustic and funny novel is a tragi-comedy whose unexpected and dramatic conclusion will leave the reader gasping.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49753726550289,"sku":"NGR9781915568281","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51058639110417,"sku":"NIN9781915568281","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52994429845777,"sku":"GOR014685570","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53029145739537,"sku":"GOR014705551","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1915568285.jpg?v=1751314858"},{"product_id":"price-of-dreams-book-margherita-giacobino-9781910213957","title":"The Price of Dreams","description":"Margherita Giacobino's book is a fictionalised biography\/autobiography of Patricia Highsmith, taking the form of diary entries supposedly written by her, interspersed with a third-person narrative. It focuses on her psychological and emotional life, with the emphasis on feelings, relationships and aspirations rather than facts, dates and events. A lesbian in an era when to be homosexual was to be reviled and discriminated against, and made to feel guilty and ashamed, Patricia Highsmith struggled with her sexual identity in this social context, and the book fruitfully explores how this might have contributed to her creative output.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The title is a reference to Patricia Highsmith's second novel The Price of Salt, a lesbian romance originally published under a pseudonym after it was rejected by the publisher of her first novel. It was not until 1990 that Patricia Highsmith agreed to its reissue under her own name, with the new title Carol.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49968674603281,"sku":"GOR010626258","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52941314523409,"sku":"NGR9781910213957","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1910213950.jpg?v=1751281695"},{"product_id":"portrait-of-a-family-with-a-fat-daughter-book-margherita-giacobino-9781910213483","title":"P Portrait of a Family with a Fat Daughter","description":"'It has been a long while in Italian fiction since such an authentic and engaging voice has appeared.' Bruno Quaranta in La Stampa 'This memoir of four generations of a family provides a vivid and eloquent picture of Italian life stretching from the late 19th century, when the peasant lifestyle had changed little from medieval times, up to the consumer culture of the 1950s. It's a saga that embraces characters like Maria, who emigrated to the USA for an unwise marriage, returning a few years later with a daughter and paralysis down one side of her body, and the author's father, Angelo, a feckless chap who was interned in a German POW camp. In writing about her female-dominated family, some of whom she is old enough to remember - most notably the matriarchal grandmother Ninin - Giacobino imbues her account with a real sense of intimacy. She has a powerful feel for traditional Italian culture, her early chapters conjuring up a time when the hierarchy of the family was the only true reality, fairness was unknown and a moment's tenderness must last a week. Alastair Mabbutt in The Herald 'An epic novel, which is the story of an Italy which no longer exists, becomes the portrait of a family. It is a novel which touches the heart.' Valeria Parrella in Grazie","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50964650819857,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50964651114769,"sku":"GOR008820851","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51903440617745,"sku":"GOR009566927","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52726185951505,"sku":"GOR014600939","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1910213489.jpg?v=1751219070"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-margherita-giacobino.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}