Welcome to Litsy!

A young couple exposes their darkest secrets to each other, and then breaks up. The man then spends the rest of his life wondering if/when/how his former lover will choose to upend his life. He watches her professional success outstrip his own and only worries.

Read this one for our books in translation book club, and while I liked the premise, it wasn't my favorite. Two lovers- a high school teacher and his brilliant former student have a tumultuous relationship that ends right after they've traded their deepest, darkest secret. Jealousy, paranoia and fear follows the teacher, as he constantly waits for his ex to reveal his worst deed.
#Readin22 #bookclub

Pietro can‘t believe he has become the man he thought he wasn‘t worthy to be. He is a teacher and passionate about the inequalities of an educational system that threats all equallly. This subject makes him a respected writer and speaker. He also has a lovely wife and children. Yet there‘s always the pact he made with his ex girlfriend.

I loved this book; the wonderful way the author sticks to the essentials - no drama.

(Pic: Oman desert)

So true. I love that the main character in this book is so passionate about a subject I am too! Although the comparison to a nuclear war is rather exaggerated.

Pietro and Teresa are in passionate love, but burned out. Pietro marries Nadia, he becomes successful, but still bound to Teresa by an exchanged secret. The construction of relations, love, perception of your own self in relation to the perception of others … are the main topics. What I liked in the book was the small moments of self-reflection, but I didn't like distant and a sterile prose. Very soft pick.
#BookSpin

#FirstLineFridays

**spoiler alert** - This is the first translated book I‘ve ever read. It was translated from Italian to English. I‘ll be honest - I waited the whole book to find out the “big secret”. Looks like I‘ll have to wait forever, because they never did tell. Ughhh. All in all, this book was decent. It was entertaining, and it kept me reading. This was my first book of 2022. I read it based on a review that I read in People Magazine.

A teacher and his ex-student, start a volatile love affair. After a huge fight, they agree to tell each other their darkest secret that they‘ve never shared with anyone. Soon after, they break up. Yet the hold they have over one another, lasts a lifetime. It‘s a book of unreliable narrators, performative personas, and the complexities of love, lust and loyalty. This novel, left me wondering… in a good way. But be prepared to be left in the dark!

Starting this one…. and have very high hopes for two reasons…. 🤞🤞🤞
1. I usually have great luck with Europa titles.
2. It‘s translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri
💕📚

A short novel, which could have been shorter still, with some editing of part one, Told from Pietro‘s point of view, which meanders and repeats. But, the set up there leads into a satisfying parts two and three. #ARC #Netgalley