For Grace Received

Modern-day Naples is a city teeming with contradictions, a chaotic metropolis in which modernity collides with history, a frenetic port city whose inhabitants are as volatile and as contrary as the city itself. From this rough mix Valeria Parrella has drawn the four exceptional novellas that comprise "For Grace Received." Here is a portrait of a Naples spanning past and present: the end of the era of tobacco smuggling and the unrestrained spread of hard drugs; the vivacity of the traditional extended family and the crushing solitude of countless anonymous loners; the fortitude of young men and women forced to make ends meet while their parents serve time, and the long, hard haul of single mothers as they attempt to bring up their kids amidst violence and despair. In Valeria Parrella's Naples, life, love and happiness must all be pursued with passion, or not at all.
The stories in this collection represent some of the finest short fiction to have emerged from Italy in recent years. Winner of the 2005 Renato Fusini Prize, the 2006 Zerilli-Marim? Prize, and among the finalists for Italy's most prestigious literary award, The Strega, "For Grace Received" announces the English debut of a remarkable new literary talent.

Napoli modern este un oras plin de contradictii, o metropola haotica in care modernitatea se ciocneste de istorie, un oras port frenetic, ai carui locuitori sunt la fel de volatili si contrari ca orasul in sine. Din acest amestec dur, Valeria Parrella a extras cele patru romane exceptionale care cuprind „For Grace Received”. Iata un portret al unui Napoli care se intinde pe trecut si prezent: sfarsitul erei contrabandei cu tutun si raspandirea neingradita a drogurilor dure; vioiciunea familiei extinse traditionale si solitudinea zdrobitoare a nenumaratilor solitari anonimi; puterea tinerilor barbati si a femeilor fortati sa se intalneasca in timp ce parintii lor isi petrec timpul si lungul drum greu al mamelor singure in timp ce incearca sa-si aduca copiii in mijlocul violentei si disperarii.