“Scilla had this extraordinary power of filling her head with images, and my mother could remember so well how, before she had met Scilla, her life had been drab and empty.”

My introduction to Natalia Ginzburg was through her 1947 novel, The Dry Heart . A novel that I fell so head over heels in love that I immediately had to get hold of every book she has written. Since then, I have read only two more books, nervous to go through them too quickly and running out of any more Ginzburgs to read.

Sagittarius , published in 1957 and translated from the Italian by Avril Bardoni, is the third Ginzburg I have read, and I remain as much in love with her as ever.

The younger daughter of a domineering mother narrates the story of her mother’s ambition and ruin, leading ultimately to the i

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