Ties

Ties is the story of a marriage. Like many marriages, this one has been subject to strain, to attrition, to the burden of routine. Yet it has survived intact. Or so things appear. The rupture in Vanda and Aldo’s marriage lies years in the past, but if one looks closely enough, the fissures and fault lines are evident. Their marriage is a cracked vase that may shatter at the slightest touch. Or perhaps it has already shattered, and nobody is willing to acknowledge the fact. Domenico Starnone’s thirteenth work of fiction is a powerful short novel about relationships, family, love, and the ineluctable consequences of one’s actions. Known as a consummate stylist and beloved as a talented storyteller, Domenico Starnone is the winner of Italy’s most prestigious literary award The Strega.

Starnone’s novella, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri, seizes you and doesn’t let go for 150 pages. The tone is cool and contained. Hysteria threatens, and is kept away — although only just.

The Times, UK

TIES by Domenico Starnone made The New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2017 list. Editors called it "[A] powerful novel about a fraying marriage.

New York Times, USA

Kirkus has named TIES among its “Best Fiction of 2017,” calling it “[a] slim, stunning meditation on marriage, fidelity, honesty, and truth.

Kirkus Reviews, USA

Ties is an extraordinary novel. Most striking is that Ties reveals that beneath our manufactured roles of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and of children, we are all human, deeply flawed and often with irrepressible desires and drives

World Literature Today, USA