My Mother Is a River - Softcover

4 of 5 stars. I received a copy of this book from the publisher and this is my honest opinion of the book. Esperia has started to succumb to the harsh disease that robs her of her memories. It is now the turn of her daughter to care for her. In daily interactions her grown child tells Esperia tales of her past in a battle to allow Esperia to keep on to her sense of self. As we listen to the tales of village life and family members we learn more about the relationship between the two. The story is told in a monologue format. This makes the book all the more touching and evocative. We hear only from Esperia's daughter as she tells her stories of her past. We hear responses to Esperia's questions and are also able to find out more about her situation as her daughter dwells on her condition. We are also allowed to see her daughter's internal battle between wanting to care for her mother and show her love whilst conversely wanting to push her away in response to Esperia's treatment of her as a child. Interspersed with this conflict is the fear that she too faces the future her mother has, that her memories too will vanish. The setting is also perfectly placed. I have been to Abruzzo and am aware of its beauty. It is a different facet of Italy, one of mountains and sea, farming and little villages. I have seen the farm houses that have become virtual ruins and so I could easily envisage the places of Esperia's youth. Similarly the pictures of family life, of farming in rural Italy and the challenges faced at the time are vividly portrayed. People who only appear in shared memories are characters in their own right. This is a moving, sad story. It is a story of the places we come from, how people and surroundings shape us and how they can have a domino effect on the lives of others. It is a short book at around 176 pages but much is contained in the slim volume. This is the first book to be published by new publishers Calisi Press. I look forward to seeing more titles from them. Hopefully more of Donatella Di Pietrantonio's works will be published too. --https://fromfirstpagetolast.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/my-mother-is-a-river-by-donatella-di-pietrantonio-review/

I'm always a little uncomfortable when I get a review copy from a small publisher. I can t guarantee that I'll review it unless I think it s worth recommending and those books cost money, time and effort to post out. It's easy shrugging off the likes of Penguin Random House but small presses prick my conscience, and this one's clearly tiny. Luckily for me Donatella Di Pietrantonio let me off that hook with her beautiful, heartrending story of a daughter caring for the mother with whom she's had a conflicted relationship all her life. Esperia Viola was born in 1942 the eldest of six daughters each conceived when their father was home on leave, each named by him in letters containing only a single word. Now Esperina, as she is known, has dementia and her daughter our narrator visits her regularly hoping to fill the widening chasms in her mother's memory by telling her the story of her life. Esperina was born in a remote area of the Apennines, marrying her cousin after special dispensation from the Pope. It's a place caught up in superstition where babies were still swaddled well into the twentieth century and witches kept away from the cradle. Her life has been hard working the land all hours, cooking, keeping the house in order, responding to the many demands of her extended family leaving her little time for a loving relationship with her daughter who resents it bitterly. As Esperina's story unfolds that relationship begins to change. Our narrator intersperses vivid vignettes from her mother's life with her own memories, reflections, dreams and nightmares. Vibrant scenes the annual slaughter of the family pig; Esperina s wedding feast; her sister's disfiguration are made all the more immediate by Di Pietrantonio's use of the second person, addressing her mother as you in her narrative. The pain of the relationship between mother and daughter is poignantly conveyed: I was still planning to settle my score with her when she escaped from me into her illness declares the daughter, then later I have to go and see her every two or three days. I can't bear longer separations. I'm scared I might lose her. As a young mother Esperina barely touched her child yet now finds excuses to reach out to her daughter, tenderly stroking her sleeve ostensibly to comment on the quality of its material. Di Pietrantonio's language is some times formal, often poetic: there are some gorgeous descriptions of food and its preparation. It's a moving, beautifully expressed novel, and good to see the translator s name on the jacket. So often that s not the case but without Franca Scurti Simpson there would be no My Mother is a River for us monolinguals to read which would be a shame. --http://alifeinbooks.co.uk/2015/11/my-mother-is-a-river-calisi-press-celebrating-italian-women-writers/

To see and feel someone you love slipping away from you, shutting you out whilst retreating into their own narrowing parallel universe, must be heartbreaking beyond words. How to deal with it emotionally and psychologically is the matter with which My Mother Is a River contends. Our narrator, whose name we never learn, also has another issue on her mind: lasting resentment of her mother Esperina for their early relationship. As she puts it: Our love went wrong, from the beginning. She was too accustomed to sacrifice to allow herself the pleasure of spending time with her baby... I was not at the forefront of her mind, and I couldn't bear it. Once older, I challenged her version of events, but I didn't really believe her enough. She should've disobeyed, should've loved me in spite of everyone else. Taken my side. And instead the hay had to be dealt with, the ripe wheat and the hungry animals. Esperina came from peasant stock, her daily existence a round of back-breaking manual labour in the fields, pens and barns. So in order to work out this resentment while at the same time creating a framework for a functioning relationship with her mother in her present demented state, our narrator decides to recount to Esperina the story of her own life. In the process she may also find a degree of personal resolution. .... The novel deservedly won prizes in Italy where it was first published; it's author, whose day job is paediatric dentistry, has since written a second, Bella Mia, which is also a prize-winner in Italy and which we await with interest. --http://bookoxygen.com/?p=6277

Donatella Di Pietrantonio was born and grew up in Arsita, a small village in the province of Teramo, and now lives in Penne where she practises as a paediatric dentist. From the age of nine she has been writing stories, fables, poems, and now novels. My Mother is a River is her first novel. It was first published in Italy in 2011, where it won the Tropea and the John Fante literary prizes. Her second book, Bella Mia, was published in 2014 and won the Brancati Prize. It is also available from Calisi Press.