Why read Forbidden Notebook?

Book cover of Forbidden Notebook: A Novel

Book description

"Powerful." -The New Yorker
"Brilliant." -The Wall Street Journal
"Astounding." -NPR
"Forceful, clear and morally engaged." -The Washington Post
"Subversive." -The New York Times Book Review
"An exquisite, tormented howl." -The Financial Times
"Quick, propulsive, and addictive." -Los Angeles Review of Books
"Gripping." -Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A remarkable story." -Publisher's…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Forbidden Notebook as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Gita Ralleigh

Author

This is a book you will love or hate. I loved it and found it frighteningly relatable despite being originally published in Italy in the 1950s.

Forbidden Notebook, newly translated into English, is an intimate, almost claustrophobic, account of how our protagonist, Valeria, begins writing her thoughts and feelings in a notebook, which she keeps hidden. Only in the act of hiding it does she realize that she has nowhere of her own in the shared family apartment, and only by writing does she gain a sense of her own self after years devoted to her family.

To quote…

From Gita's 3 favorite reads in 2023.