It recently arrived in bookstores The memory of the lilythe new novel by Alessandra Libutti. The book moves between the Tuscan hills of the late nineteenth century and the Rome of 1945, telling a family story that spans four generations of women, from the noble lineage of Ruggeri Buzzaglia. A saga that combines personal history and collective story, investigating the silent courage, daily resistance and thirst for knowledge of the protagonists.
At the center of the novel is the author’s desire to recompose her family constellations, to give voice to the women from whom she inherited blood and spirit. Not just private memory, therefore, but a journey through decades of passions, rebirths and small revolutions.
The narrative opens in Volterra in 1872, on the occasion of the wedding between Count Lodovico and Adele, a marriage that marks a fracture in the family balance: the bride, a former servant of the house, brings within the walls of the palace the frank and decisive ways of someone accustomed to work. Alongside a mild and progressive husband, Adele embodies the model of the dedicated wife and mother, forced by continuous pregnancies and a daily life marked by duties.
It is daughter Livia, the fourth of eight siblings, who gives voice to the story. Through his gaze, the reader follows the evolution of the Ruggeri Buzzaglia family over the centuries, up until the Second World War. The memories of childhood – the mysterious figure of the mother, the rebellion of the older sister Baba who asks to study and become a teacher – are intertwined with the social changes that redesign the role of women.
With The memory of the lilyAlessandra Libutti signs a novel about female tenacity and freedom, supported by intimate and sober writing. The book returns, through Livia’s voice, the photograph of a genealogy of women who have chosen to write their own destiny, leaving the sign of their discreet strength over time.
