Dear, where do you come from?
From the extensive work of the Italian writer Susanna Tamaro, Bihotza Nora, zu hara, is the only text that we can currently read in Basque. The whole book is a long letter that grandma writes to her nephew that's gone. It consists of fifteen letters written between 16 November and 22 December 1992. In a month and a half it does a review of many years. The greatest particularity of letters is that they are in one direction. I mean, everything we know we'll know from the mouth of Grandma Olga. So is the personality and the mood of the nephew.
Grandma is about to die and writes with the intention of softening and completing the chextra between the two. Most letters repeat the same structure: first it refers to time (rain, clouds, wind, sun, hail…). Then he starts pulling his memories. And it ends with a lot of rhetorical questions.
Most of it focuses on memories. In these memories, Grandma Olga is the one who marks the turning point. On the one hand, he will tell his nephew his ancestors and, therefore, his past. And on the other hand, he'll talk about his daughter and niece, a more recent past. It will also tell us the current situation from time to time.
It has a very special style. Considering that we have a protagonist who is dying, we will soon realize that Olga wants to give her niece many details, tell her many things, justify her positions, share her doubts, do family genealogy, reveal secrets and above all, express her affection. All this is achieved with a powerful internal monologue. And it's as weak as it is strong. The reader who finds this strength will be at ease in that depth. Anyone who wants an intense rhythm can hardly like it. The author uses the tempos of the interior world, leaving aside the external frenesis.
The book below (Ascolta la mia voce, 2007) was a great success in Italy. We're told the episode where the nephew comes home from the family. For my part, I would like to read in Basque (Fernando Rey has made a wonderful translation of the book Bihotza nora, zu hara): What would the title look like? Listen to my voice, for example?
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