The story of Berlin in the 20th century
If You Kept a Record of Sins
Location(s): Romania, Italy
Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs, Fiction, In Translation
Era(s): Modern
TRANSLATED BY ELIZABETH HARRIS
A prismatic novel that records the indelible marks a mother leaves on her son after she abandons their home in Italy for a business she’s building in Romania. Lorenzo, just a young boy when his mother leaves, recalls the incisive fragments of their life – when they would playfully wrestle each other, watch the sunrise, or test out his mother’s newest scientific creation.
Now a young man, Lorenzo travels to Romania for his mother’s funeral and reflects on the strangeness of today’s Europe, which masks itself as a beacon of Western civilization while iniquity and exploitation run rampant.
With elliptical, piercing prose, Bajani tells a story of abandonment and initiation, of sentimental education and shattered illusions, of unconditional love
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