Le cose che ho
(The things you have) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
13-years-old Deborah will soon have a brother, she rides her bicycle on the roads on the outskirts of a small town, she sees her friends at school, at the skate park, and at the railway tracks. [Publisher’s website]
At the tracks, the challenge is to keep one’s eyes open when the air from the passing trains rushes into one’s face, slapping it, and the noise covers everything. Children’s play, apparently, but the play becomes dangerous when friends start daring each other. An uncomfortable story rendered in a poetic writing. A story about the challenge of passing into adulthood, and learning who one wants to be.
Edited by: Centro MeTRa - Università di Bologna (Italy)
Comment:
Superbly written, this easy-to-read novel approaches a number of teenage issues: shame (linked to diversity, including diversity from normative femininity and masculinity), extreme challenging as a repeated rite of passage, the tension between individual identity and group identity (that does not allow for deviation from the group’s norm).