Description
The Earth is Falling is a haunting and magical novel based around the existence of an abandoned village outside Naples. The deserted houses that still stand there are peopled with ghosts who live in a perpetual present from which time has effectively been abolished. The village appears to be semi-alive; the landslide which ominously awaits and which will eventually lead to the abandonment of the place has yet to arrive (yet its rumbles are heard). Pellegrino peoples Alento with eccentrics, luminaries, an eternally optimistic town crier. In the closing pages, the narrator Estella summons the remaining ghosts for a final dinner. The overall effect is unsettling, haunting and uncanny, the trapped souls doomed to repeat their circumscribed daily life for ever, cut off from the world but dimly aware of its continued presence outside. The pervading mood of nostalgia and melancholy works in stark contrast with the inevitability of the impending catastrophe of the landslide that threatens to obliterate their world forever.
- The Earth is Falling is haunted by the threat of the climate crisis, centred on a town threatened by a landscape which will destroy it. - It also explores ideas related to the desertion of rural areas as younger generations move to the city, and considers the loneliness and isolation of those left behind. - Pellegrino is interested in the theme of abandonment as a means of recovering awareness of the historical experience of places.* - The book combines aspects of Magical Realism with the author's distinctive Gothic sensibility - The novel crosses genres and invents a new one of its own: what the author terms 'abandonology' - the study of abandoned places. - Highly literary - the title comes from Rilke; there are references to Borges, Leopardi, Montale and the great decadent poet Giovanni Pascoli - the book's style and the style of the author herself, will also appeal to young non-bookish aficionados of goth. Romantic, quirky, dark and often very funny, the novel taps into a current of dark fantasy and decadent yearning, while remaining completely unpredictable. - The mood is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, those trapped souls doomed to repeat their circumscribed daily life for ever, cut off from the world but dimly aware of its continued presence outside, combined with the melancholy nostalgia of the poet Giacomo Leopardi, one of the gods of 19th-century Italian literature. The gothic spirit lives on in Pellegrino's spectral figures. - This is a bold new voice, quite unlike anything being written in English today. - The novel has received an English PEN Translates Award, and has been co-funded by the Jan Michalski Foundation.
About the Author
Carmen Pellegrino is an Italian historian and writer who studies marginality in urban and rural abandoned areas. An eclectic scholar, she has investigated some of the salient knots of modernity, concentrating her studies on collective movements of dissidence, focusing her research on racism, social exclusion and the conditions of exploitation of migrants (in 'The hours of my day', published in the anthology Qui and Fatigue: stories, tales and reportage from the world of work, 2010, was winner of the award reportage Napoli Monitor). The Earth is Falling was shortlisted for the 2015 Campiello Prize in Italy.
Reviews
'Pellegrino is perhaps the most gifted prose-writer of her generation.' Massimo Onofri, Avvenire; 'An imaginary landscape whose first source of inspiration might be Rosccigno Vecchia, although the precise geographical location doesn't really matter since Alento is a kind of emblem of all the abandoned villages in Italy. The novel is part of a reviving Mediterranean tradition, but it also has something South American about it. (...) We are in the realm of magical realism. Pellegrino doesn't believe in the conventional evidence of death, and tries to demystify it, by bringing back to life all the life that preceded it.' Francesco Durante, Corriere del Mezzogiorno; 'Alento becomes the metaphor for abandonment, for solitude, for the desire not to let the past go and to bring it back to life in memory.' Gerardo Adinolfi, Repubblica; '... an absolutely original and poetic vision' Elena Cambiaghi, La Sicilia
Awards
Short-listed for Campiello Prize in Italy 2015.
Book Information
ISBN 9781913513474
Author Carmen Pellegrino
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Prototype Publishing Ltd.
Publisher Prototype Publishing Ltd.
- The Earth is Falling is haunted by the threat of the climate crisis, centred on a town threatened by a landscape which will destroy it. - It also explores ideas related to the desertion of rural areas as younger generations move to the city, and considers the loneliness and isolation of those left behind. - Pellegrino is interested in the theme of abandonment as a means of recovering awareness of the historical experience of places.* - The book combines aspects of Magical Realism with the author's distinctive Gothic sensibility - The novel crosses genres and invents a new one of its own: what the author terms 'abandonology' - the study of abandoned places. - Highly literary - the title comes from Rilke; there are references to Borges, Leopardi, Montale and the great decadent poet Giovanni Pascoli - the book's style and the style of the author herself, will also appeal to young non-bookish aficionados of goth. Romantic, quirky, dark and often very funny, the novel taps into a current of dark fantasy and decadent yearning, while remaining completely unpredictable. - The mood is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, those trapped souls doomed to repeat their circumscribed daily life for ever, cut off from the world but dimly aware of its continued presence outside, combined with the melancholy nostalgia of the poet Giacomo Leopardi, one of the gods of 19th-century Italian literature. The gothic spirit lives on in Pellegrino's spectral figures. - This is a bold new voice, quite unlike anything being written in English today. - The novel has received an English PEN Translates Award, and has been co-funded by the Jan Michalski Foundation.
About the Author
Carmen Pellegrino is an Italian historian and writer who studies marginality in urban and rural abandoned areas. An eclectic scholar, she has investigated some of the salient knots of modernity, concentrating her studies on collective movements of dissidence, focusing her research on racism, social exclusion and the conditions of exploitation of migrants (in 'The hours of my day', published in the anthology Qui and Fatigue: stories, tales and reportage from the world of work, 2010, was winner of the award reportage Napoli Monitor). The Earth is Falling was shortlisted for the 2015 Campiello Prize in Italy.
Reviews
'Pellegrino is perhaps the most gifted prose-writer of her generation.' Massimo Onofri, Avvenire; 'An imaginary landscape whose first source of inspiration might be Rosccigno Vecchia, although the precise geographical location doesn't really matter since Alento is a kind of emblem of all the abandoned villages in Italy. The novel is part of a reviving Mediterranean tradition, but it also has something South American about it. (...) We are in the realm of magical realism. Pellegrino doesn't believe in the conventional evidence of death, and tries to demystify it, by bringing back to life all the life that preceded it.' Francesco Durante, Corriere del Mezzogiorno; 'Alento becomes the metaphor for abandonment, for solitude, for the desire not to let the past go and to bring it back to life in memory.' Gerardo Adinolfi, Repubblica; '... an absolutely original and poetic vision' Elena Cambiaghi, La Sicilia
Awards
Short-listed for Campiello Prize in Italy 2015.
Book Information
ISBN 9781913513474
Author Carmen Pellegrino
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Prototype Publishing Ltd.
Publisher Prototype Publishing Ltd.
