The Road to the City

Description

Delia is one of five children, growing up in a poor Italian village. She is 17, and dreams of marrying a rich man; she dreams of a grand apartment in the city and silk stockings. To escape her father's neglect and her mother's sadness, she begins to take the dusty road to the city every day, accompanied by Nini,her sweet and mysterious cousin. When Nini takes a job in a factory and moves in with a city woman, Delia sees another way of being. But when she discovers she's pregnant, she agrees to marry the father, seduced by the promise of wealth and comfort. Nothing, not even Nini's desperate declaration of love, can stop her - but her rejection will be his undoing. The Road to the City is a short, poignant novel about the dreams of youth, and the cruelty it takes to make them come true.

Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991) was born in Palermo, Sicily. She wrote dozens of books including the essay collection The Little Virtues, and the novels Happiness, as Such, Voices in the Evening and the Strega Prize-winning Family Lexicon, all published by Daunt Books. She was involved in political activism throughout her life and served in the Italian parliament from 1983 to 1987