The book
A bestselling novel in Italy, soon to be a motion picture directed by Edoardo Winspeare, and Elle’s magazine’s book of the year. Eva Sleeps is a sweeping story about family, forgiveness, conflict, and the search for truth. A literary page-turner that will delight fans of Elena Ferrante.
Out of the struggles and conflicts in the border regions of Northern Italy and Austria comes a family story that embodies the history of nations. Eva, a forty-year-old public relations professional based in northern Italy, receives an unexpected message from the deep south. Vito, a man she knew as a child as a friend of her mother’s, is very ill and would like to see her one last time. He is a retired police officer who was stationed in the north during the late 1960s, a period rife with tension, protest and violence. These troubles, however, did not stop the young hapless policeman from falling in love with the “wrong” woman... The beautiful Gerda, accomplished cook, sister of a terrorist, and Eva’s mother. Their affair was a passionate one, but what was the nature of their love? And if he loved her so passionately why did he leave her to return to Calabria? What scars did those years leave on Vito, and on Gerda? It’s time for Eva to find out.
Praise for Francesca Melandri
“There are few Italian novels that so successfully and surprisingly combine broad themes like local and national history, or the relationship between the north and the south, together with the personal dramas linked to family, love, ambition. This is an epic novel!”—Solo Libri
“A powerful lyrical fresco in which personal and public histories are intertwined.”—Paola Contardi, jury of Elle’s Best Novel Prize
“This is a rich, intimate, and powerful story that is carried along by characters who are depicted in all their profundity and humanity.” —Arianna Rita Di Tomasso, jury of Elle’s Best Novel Prize.
The author
Francesca Melandri
Francesca Melandri is a screenwriter and novelist. Eva Sleeps is her English language debut. She lives in Rome, Italy.
Reviews
- Jun 4 2017
Eva Sleeps by Francesca Melandri tr. Katherine McGregor
— Word by Word - Mar 21 2017
Francesca Melandri on Narrating Italy's Darkest and Least Reconciled Moments
— Bookwitty - Nov 2 2016
Eva Sleeps
— Historical Novel Society - Oct 27 2016
15 Contemporary Italian Writers You Should Read (who aren’t Elena Ferrante)
— Three Monkeys Online - Oct 26 2016
Eva Sleeps by Francesca Melandri
— World Literature Today - Aug 16 2016
The Watchlist: August 2016
— Words without Borders