Lost on Me

Description

Born into a family with an omnipresent mother who is devoted to her own anxiety, a father ruled by hygienic and architectural obsessions, and a precocious genius brother at the centre of their attention, Vero languishes in boredom. After a childhood spent peering through the tiny windows of their cramped Rome apartment at the carefree children playing on the streets outside, her teenage years are filled with attempts at escape - but she is no match for her mother's relentless tracking methods and guilt-tripping mastery, and her every venture outside their Rome apartment ends in her being returned home. It's no wonder then that Vero becomes a writer - and a liar - inventing stories in a bid for her own sanity. In deliciously wry and crafted prose, Lost on Me recounts Vero's transition from eccentric childhood to dysfunctional adulthood. Detailing her failed attempts at emancipation, her discovery of sex, her romantic obsessions, her struggles with constipation and - ultimately - her contentious relationship with reality, this is a profoundly original and relentlessly entertaining novel about experience, connection and selfhood.

Veronica Raimo is the author of four novels, the most recent of which, Lost On Me (Niente di Vero) was shortlisted for the Premio Strega Prize and won the Strega Giovani Prize and the Viareggio Repaci Prize. She contributes cultural articles to various Italian publications, and her translations into Italian include works by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Octavia. E. Butler, Ray Bradbury and Ursula K. Le Guin. She lives in Rome.

Is it possible, today, to completely reinvent auto-fiction? For Veronica Raimo it clearly is. Get ready to talk about this book for a long, long time -- Paolo Giordano, author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers A desecrating and tender portrait of family that reels us in from the very first lines * Io Donna: Il Corriere della Sera * Many pages in this novel are so intense and unscrupulous that one feels the apprehension of being caught spying in a stranger's mailbox * Esquire Italia * Reading this novel is a blast ... Many of the pages are jellyfish stings: they burn on and on -- Claudia Durastanti, author of Strangers I Know Veronica Raimo is a stupendous comedian * La Stampa * A story that nails us down with a powerful first-person voice, clear and exhilarating. * Marie Claire Italia * Many pages in this novel are so intense and unscrupulous that one feels the apprehension of being caught spying in a stranger's mailbox * Esquire Italia *