All That Is Left of Life
A Novel
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4.4 • 13 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE
AN OTHERPPL AUGUST BOOK CLUB PICK
Three generations of the Ansaldo family grapple with the aftermath of a tragic murder in this sweeping, cinematic debut set in 1980s Rome, for fans of Elena Ferrante and Liz Moore.
It’s a sultry August night when sixteen-year-old Betta Ansaldo convinces her cousin Miriam to sneak out to the local beach for a party. Only Miriam returns. Traumatized by the violence she’s witnessed, she remains silent. The small community is riven with grief, none more so than the Ansaldos, who search for answers they cannot find. Who did Betta cross paths with on that fateful night? What was she doing there? And how could such a horrific crime happen in such a peaceful place?
As the years pass, and Betta’s murder goes unsolved, the Ansaldo family fractures under the weight of their loss. When Miriam meets Leo, a sweet-natured young man with a dark past, their romance seems to turn her life around. But when Leo starts to pull loose the threads of Betta’s story, determined to find out what really happened, his search for the truth risks unraveling everything.
With more than 200,000 copies already sold in Italy, All That Is Left of Life is a deeply atmospheric and unputdownable family saga that explores love, loss, and the secrets we carry, from a riveting new voice in international fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1980s Rome, Recchia's irresistible English-language debut follows a family's struggle to rebuild after a teenage girl's murder. During a family holiday, 16-year-old Betta Ansaldo sneaks out of the house with her cousin Miriam. Betta's brutalized body is discovered on the beach at dawn by a local barkeeper. The inept local cops fail to ask Miriam—who is in her room when the news about Betta's death reaches the household—if she knew her cousin's whereabouts overnight. Eager to keep her name out of the papers, Miriam's parents send her back to boarding school within days of the crime. As the case goes unsolved, Miriam's weight dangerously drops, and her mother sends her to a psychiatrist. The doctor turns out to be cynical and unscrupulous, known for handing out barbiturates to his patients "with the discretion of a gentleman of a bygone era... like freshly cut flowers," and Miriam develops a dangerous addiction to them. She also crosses paths with Leo, a small-time drug dealer who, as he grows closer to Miriam, uses his underworld connections to unravel what happened the night Betta died. Recchia depicts with devastating astuteness how grief hollows out Betta's family and whittles away at Miriam, and her captivating storytelling transcends the plot's well-worn trope of a young man with a checkered past who intuits exactly what a woman needs. Cinematic in pacing and scope, this is nearly impossible to put down.
Customer Reviews
Endless
On and on and on. Gave up after 175 pgs