Can a prison free those who enter? Nisida, moored like a boat in the Mediterranean, is a small island nestled between Capri and Bagnoli, off the coast of Naples. Each day, through the early morning light, Elisabetta Maiorano travels across the city, passes by the guards on the way into the detention centre, hands over her bag and arrives at her classroom. All thoughts are suspended once inside. Usually Elisabetta hasn't spoken to anyone since the day before; her only reason for living to teach mathematics to the group of young inmates who arrive not long after she does. But one day, Almarina shows up and everything changes. She is Romanian and bears the signs of her personal history on her body. Together, closed up in a small classroom, a true island within an island, Elisabetta and Almarina discover a possible pathway to freedom. Warm and intimate, intense and political, Valeria Parrella touches our emotions, giving voice to a loneliness that is universal. Almarina is about finding love in unexpected places, about atonement, forgetting and starting over. But mostly it is about two women learning how to live again.
Author
Valeria Parrella is an Italian author, playwright and activist. In 2005, her collection of short stories Per grazia ricevuta (For grace received, English translation by Antony Shugaar, 2009) was shortlisted for the Premio Strega, Italy's most prestigious literature award, and it won the Premio Renato Fucini for the best short stories collection. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Premio Lattes Grinzane. Since 2007, she has been writing theatre pieces, too, while in 2008, she published her first novel, Lo spazio bianco, which won the Premio Letterario Basilicata. In 2009, the book was adapted into a movie with the same title, which was presented at the 66th Venice Film Festival. Thanks to this film, Valeria won the award Premio Tonino Guerra for best character at the Bari International Film Festival 2010. She has written several other short stories and novels, she collaborates with the newspapers La Repubblica and L'Espresso and has her own column in the magazine Grazia.
