The Days of Abandonment
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Days of Abandonment is the gripping story of an Italian woman’s experiences after being suddenly left by her husband after fifteen years of marriage.
With two young children to care for, Olga finds it more and more difficult to do the things she used to: keep a spotless house, cook meals with creativity and passion, refrain from using obscenities. After running into her husband with his much-younger new lover in public, she cannot even refrain from assaulting him physically.
Olga conveys her journey from denial to devastating emptiness—and when she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A woman learns about how life goes on after the loss of love in this searing novel. When Olga’s husband, Mario, leaves her and their two children after 15 years of marriage, she descends into a sort of madness trying to navigate her new world. She had built her life around Mario, and life without him becomes tinged with a sort of unreality, from paying her bills and dealing with an ant infestation to her oddly stilted relationship with the classical musician who lives downstairs. Author Elena Ferrante (My Brilliant Friend) movingly shrinks and expands Olga’s world as she fights her way back from depression. Hillary Huber’s narration is clean and sparse, bringing empathy but not sentimentality to Olga’s complicated emotional makeup. The Days of Abandonment is an unsparing look at how love can wound and also heal.
Customer Reviews
fever dream
this book distorted my grip on the passage of time and reality entirely. it is concurrently short and endless. the style reminded me a lot of Otessa Moshfegh: the unraveling of an unreliable narrator makes the reader second guess every scene, every thought, every dialogue. In the apartment where much of the story takes place, the walls are closing in, and you feel the claustrophobia just as acutely as the protagonist does. but there are grounding elements too. like how Olga displays the same familiar values of self-discipline and rigorous study that many of Ferrante’s other character possess, notably Lenu in the Neapolitan series. Overall, anther psychic Ferrante-made-me-feel-a lot novel.