Ladra di jeans
(The thief of jeans) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
Gemma and Padma are in class together but they couldn’t be more different. Gemma is brash, calculating, and cynical. Padma, on the other hand, is shy, a great reader, and good.
But when, by chance, a pair of jeans passes from one to the other, a strange friendship begins between them.
A borderline friendship, where sincerity, calculation and intelligence acquire blurred and dangerous traits… [Publisher’s website]
Edited by: Centro MeTRa - Università di Bologna (Italy)
Comment:
“Ladra di jeans is a disturbing and uncomfortable novel for teenagers. In addition to the theme of friendship between girls and its ambivalences, sensitively addressed by the writer, it deals with the themes of interculturalism and the meeting/clash between young people with completely different cultural and family backgrounds. Unlike most books for this target audience, it does not propose a simplistic and clear moral, preferring instead to overturn commonplaces and preconceived ideas, and making readers reflect on the fact that ethnic, cultural and class differences do not always translate into fragility and discrimination, just as belonging to a privileged class is not necessarily a guarantee of serenity and inner well-being. Thus, “the ‘different’, Indian teenager Padma manages to fit into the social context that surrounds her, while her friend, the Italian Gemma, who first helped her overcome her reluctance, gradually turns into a character of fragile balance, ‘different’, deviant.” [Pino Boero’s Blog]