On dark days, days when she thought there was really nothing important to be done, she had the impression that for women like herself, the world might just keep shrinking down until it was small enough to fit into a shopping list. And then everything would seem to contract, to the point where she couldn’t breathe any more, as if the walls and the ceiling were closing in on her…
Elena Varvello
Born and raised near Turin, where she still lives and works, ELENA VARVELLO is a novelist, poet, and teacher of creative writing. Her debut collection of short stories, L’Economia Delle Cose (2007) won the Premio Bagutta Opera Prima and the Premio Settembrini, and was nominated for Italy’s most prestigious literary award, the Premio Strega. She has since published three novels: La Luce Perfetto del Giorno (2011), La Vita Felice (2016), and Solo un Ragazzo (2020), the latter two of which have been translated into multiple languages. The English translation of La Vita Felice (Can You Hear Me? trans. Alex Valente) made The Times bestseller list and won an English PEN Translates award.
