The Garden of Monsters

(Paperback)

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Set in the Maremma region of Southern Tuscany, this novel tells the story of two families against the backdrop of a rapidly transforming country. The Biagini are local ranchers, while the wealthy Sanfilippi belong to Rome's upper middle-class. When Sauro, an ambitious rancher, and Filippo, a hedonistic politician, become business partners, the stories of their families become irrevocably intertwined. As an influx of new money pours into the town, political allegiances, family loyalties, moral codes, and sexual identities all begin to shift.

Sauro and Filippo, their wives Miriam and Giulia, and their sons, are the pro- totypes of the new Italy, ostensibly emancipated from traditional mores, but at the same time, insecure and blinkered. Fifteen-year-old Annamaria, fragile and anxious, struggles to find her place among them. Luckily, a parallel world is taking shape nearby: the Tarot Garden, the monumental sculpture garden created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle. It is in this magical place, through her conversations with the artist, that Annamaria will slowly find a sense of identity and belonging.

Reviews

A perfectly narrated family saga, in which the loves and conflicts of each individual are composed to form a complex, vivid mosaic of the human heart and its revolutions. * Corriere della Sera *
This book confirms Lorenza Pieri as one of the great narrators of adolescence. * La Repubblica *
A luminous voice, of the likes of Elsa Morante and Elena Ferrante. * Vanity Fair *

Author Bio

Lorenza Pieri spent her childhood on the small island of Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany. She studied in Siena and Paris and worked in publishing for fifteen years. In 2014 she moved to the United States, where she works as an author, journalist, and literary translator. Isole minori, her award-winning debut novel, has been translated in five languages. This is her first book to appear in English.

Liesl Schillinger is a literary critic, writer, and translator, and teaches journalism and criticism at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Her writings have appeared in The New York Times and The New York Review of Books.