Susanna Tamaro
Italian novelist (born 1957) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Italian novelist (born 1957) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Susanna Tamaro (Italian pronunciation: [suˈzanna taˈmaːro]; born 12 December 1957)[1] is an Italian novelist and film director. She is an author of novels, stories, magazine articles, and children's literature. Her novel Va' dove ti porta il cuore (Follow Your Heart) was a worldwide bestseller, translated into 44 languages and awarded with the 1994 Premio Donna Città di Roma.
Susanna Tamaro | |
|---|---|
Tamaro in 1995 | |
| Born | 12 December 1957 Trieste, Italy |
| Occupation(s) | Novelist, film director |
| Known for | Follow Your Heart (1994) |
| Website | susannatamaro.it |
Susanna Tamaro was born in Trieste in 1957 to a family of Jewish origins on her mother's side; she is a distant relative of the Italian writer Italo Svevo.[1][2][3] She has described her father as an alcoholic and her mother as "cold and cruel".[4] After her parents separated, she was raised in Trieste by her maternal grandmother[5] and then by a care home.[6]
She received a scholarship to study at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, an Italian school of cinema located in Rome, where she obtained a diploma in direction in 1977, beginning to work with director Salvatore Samperi.[6][7] She worked as a writer and editor in the television industry for several years.[7]
In 1978, she started writing her first short stories. Her first novel Illmitz was completed in 1981 but rejected by all the publishing houses she approached.[8][7] It was eventually published in 2013.[8]
In 1989, her novel La testa fra le nuvole (Head in the Clouds) was published by Marsilio.[7][9] Her second novel Per voce sola (Solo Voice, 1991) won the International PEN prize and was translated into several languages.[citation needed] Federico Fellini said of her second novel, "It has given me the joy of being moved without embarrassing me, as it happened to me when I read Oliver Twist or certain pages of Amerika, by Kafka."[9] In 1991, she wrote a book for children Cuore di ciccia.
Her 1993 novel Va' dove ti porta il cuore (Follow Your Heart) did not receive favorable reception from critics when it was first published,[10][11] but it became a bestseller[12][13][14][15] and sold 15 million copies by 2008.[16] It is described as the "Italian book most sold in the 20th century";[17][18] as of 2008, about 25,000 copies had sold in the United States.[16] The novel won the Premio Donna Citta di Roma award in 1994.[19][20] By 2002, it was translated into 44 languages.[9] In 1996, the Italian director, Cristina Comencini, made a film of the same name based on the novel.[21]
In 1997, she published the novel Anima Mundi, and was widely criticized for her portrayal of Father Walter in what she described as "a shameful campaign" of "insults, threats and slander".[9][22] In 1998, she published Dear Matildha – I Can't Wait for Man to Walk, a collection of articles she wrote for Famiglia Cristiana, an Italian magazine.[7]
Her book Rispondimi (Answer Me) was described by Kirkus Reviews as "Holy abstractions brightened by dollops of sex and violence."[23] The book consists of three stories, featuring the daughter of a prostitute, the wife of a businessman, and a jealous husband.[9] A review by World Literature Today states, "The book's title comes from the closing passage of the first story, when Rosa, alone in the world, asks a stray white dog (a white dog appears in each story) if Someone guides us or if we are alone in the world. When the dog just looks at her with its tongue hanging out, she tells it to speak, to answer her: 'Rispondimi'."[24] A review in Library Journal refers to the protagonists in each story and concludes, "Their bitterness at the world and inability to love or be loved is so off-putting that the reader is likely to stop caring long before they reach their moments of truth. Not recommended."[25] A review by Publishers Weekly states, "If Tamaro's view is dark, the care she takes with character development infuses her narratives with a clear and resonant moral vision."[26]
In 2001, she wrote Raccontami. In 2002, she wrote Più fuoco, più vento; in 2003 Fuori. In 2005, she directed the film Nel mio amore, based on a story from Answer Me, titled "Hell Does Not Exist".[7][9] In 2006, she published Ascolta la mia voce (Listen to My Voice), a sequel of Follow your Heart.[18] This novel was translated in twelve languages.[citation needed] In 2008, she published Luisito – A Love Story.
In September 2018, she announced the release of her next book, anticipating that in it she would discuss how she was affected by Asperger syndrome since the early years of life.[27]
In 2021, a documentary about Tamaro titled Inedita was shown at the Rome Film Festival and then on television in Italy on channel Rai 5.[28][29] In the documentary, she discusses her life with Asperger's syndrome, her writing career, and her various interests, including bicycle repair, beekeeping, and the practice of martial arts.[28]
Tamaro described herself as a "strange child", being treated by neurologists and taking medications from an early age; later in her childhood she read about Asperger's syndrome and was finally diagnosed with the disorder.[4][6] She claims to have experienced gender dysphoria since the age of 3.[6]
In a 2002 interview, Tamaro called herself an environmentalist, a vegetarian, and "a Christian more than a Catholic" due to the religious beliefs of her family, including her father's interest in Taoism and her mother's Jewish heritage.[9] As of 2024,[update] she has lived near Orvieto with the writer Roberta Mazzoni for 35 years; she has referred to the relationship as a "spiritual friendship", stating that she is not a lesbian.[6]
Tamaro has expressed her opposition to abortion.[6]
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