WHEREABOUTS

Susan Vinciotti Bonito gives this introspective, fragmented fiction--written in Italian and translated into English by the author--a delicate, poignant narration. She narrates the vignettes with a deliberate pace and inquiring tone that suit the internal monologue style. The choice to read in a distinctly inflected way gives the novel an immersive quality that illuminates the inner workings of the unnamed narrator's mind. The world that Lahiri creates feels Italian: Women are signoras, she eats in trattorias, says ciao. The narrator, presumably a literature professor in her mid-forties, closely observes her world and herself and has a rich imagination. The novel's slim chapters often have prepositional phrase titles--"On the Street," "At the Trattoria," "In the Pool"--that taken together combine to create listeners' understanding of a solitary and lonely life. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2021]