One day, Alba, a young Italian woman, wakes up in an African village, lying down on a bed, dying, without remembering anything of herself. A man saves her, they fall in love for each other, they marry and they have a child.
I take my shoes off; I can feel the rithm of the music penetrating into my body, I beat my feet on the ground and I sense the contact, dense and intimate. I hold Chitsango’s hand and I don’t have any other desires. I hold my child in my harms and I feel alive again.
Her life seems to be normal again; suddenly, the soldiers attack the village and destroy it. Alba loses sight of her son while they’re trying to run away together. She’s captured and she’s sold as a slave. Her lost memory torments her and, in the end, it comes back with a thousand of questions without answers, while she strongly fights to go back to her family, without never giving up.
Ilaria Greco on RecensioniLibri wrote:Alba lives her adventures (perhaps I should say disadventures) on the background of an uncontaminated nature and dream landscapes. I read the whole novel in just one night because it completely captured me, despite the harshness of the themes. The fear and the anxiety tied me up to the main character’s fate so much that I couldn’t stop from reading. The story could appear granted, but nothing is what it seems. The mistery about Alba’s origins is really unpredictable. “Amnesia”, in just a bit more then a hundred pages, destabilized me and impressed me with his hardness, frankness and with the intensity of the emotions that made me feel. Incredible turns of events and twists lead the story to a breathtaking finale. I’m absolutely without words.
This is a novel that highlights the complexity of the human soul and shows how much cruelty can lies in the hearts of other people.
This book is suggested to whom are looking for a overwhelming and strong story.
Tatiana Vanini on LibrieRecensioni wrote:Amnesia si caratterizza per l’ essenzialità e l’intensità del racconto: mentre la vicenda scorre veloce, il lettore si lascia assorbire dal ritmo serrato e dallo stile diretto con cui Paola Di Nino narra una storia di schiavitù, crudeltà e violenza ma anche di riscatto, amicizia e altruismo.
La vicenda di Amnesia tocca il cuore, sì, ma non solo: pone l’attenzione su alcuni temi, che solo apparentemente riguardano un passato scomodo da ricordare. I soprusi dei nemici riflettono la spietata crudeltà dei colonialisti: la durezza con cui l’autrice affronta la tematica della schiavitù e della violenza richiama alla mente le pagine di Aspettando i barbari di J.M.Coetzee.
Come per l’opera del Premio Nobel per la Letteratura del 2003, anche in Amnesia il lettore percepisce il significato metaforico della vicenda racchiuso nel titolo stesso.
Stefania on Diario di un sogno wrote:Amnesia is an intriguing novel. It is able to capture the reader’s attention since the very beginning: the first pages in fact introduce a woman that is confused, wounded and that lost all of her memories. The story is strong and deceptive. Realities that seem dreams, nightmares that hide dark secrets, all in few pages that leave the reader disoriented, like the main character is herself, a lost woman that is seeking her past to bring light in her present.
Lara Bellotti on Felici Pensieri wrote:A novel that captures from the very beginning, intense, strong and real.
Great suspense: the reader’s heart beats at the same rhythm of the author words’ intensity. The reader’s mind gets completely involved in the story. This is a novel that doesn’t rest unnoticed, it’s hard to not being shocked from the vivid passion with which the author evolves every single scene.
Piera de Recy on Novella2000 wrote:Paola di Nino al suo secondo romanzo “Amnesia” ci stupisce con una narrazione travolgente; un’opera che cattura da subito l’attenzione del lettore, portandolo a vivere ogni singola scena, rimanendo con il fiato sospeso.
Chi è veramente Alba? Chi la tormenta? Un vortice, il suo, che pare non abbia una fine.
Mistero e suspance avvolgono la sua vita e la storia narrata che scorrono velocemente fino ad arrivare a un finale totalmente inaspettato e sorprendente.
No amnesia can make us forget about our obligation to fight for what we care most in the world: this is the synthesis of Paola Di Nino’s novel. The main character is an example of strength and courage.
