Novel
Bebo's Girl
La ragazza di Bube
Carlo Cassola · 1960
Synopsis
In the Val d'Elsa, in Tuscany, just after the Liberation, Mara, sixteen, lives at Monteguidi in a poor family: her partisan brother has been killed, her mother has shut herself away in silence, her father lives only for the Communist Party. Arturo, known as Bube, a former comrade of her brother in the Resistance, comes to see her and brings her a present. But Bube, wholly set on avenging his comrades against the fascists, is caught up in a bloody brawl and has to flee.
Context
Written in 1958 and 1959 from a true story, whose protagonists the author had interviewed, the novel was published by Einaudi in 1960. Part of the Marxist critics reproached it for showing the failure of the Resistance, and the woman who had served as the model for Mara did not recognise herself in the character. Philippe Jaccottet translated it into French at Seuil in 1962 under the title “La ragazza”, reissued by Livre de poche and then by Cambourakis in 2015; Marguerite Waldman translated it into English in 1962 under the title “Bebo's Girl”.
Who it is for
A short novel, told at the level of a young girl, in a writing that is both raw and precise.
Prizes and reception
It received the Strega Prize in 1960, and Luigi Comencini adapted it for the cinema with Claudia Cardinale and George Chakiris.
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