The Cursed Friend
Italy

The Cursed Friend

by Beatrice Salvioni

Freedom & Resistance Historical Fiction Fiction 2023

Summary

Italy, 1935. Francesca is a respectable girl from a bourgeois family, but she longs for a life beyond the suffocating rules of her small town. Her attention is drawn to Maddalena, a fearless outsider whom everyone calls the Cursed One. When Francesca lies to protect her, an unexpected friendship begins—one that will challenge everything she has been taught about obedience, morality, and what it means to be a girl. As fascism tightens its grip on Italy, the two friends confront prejudice, violence, and a society determined to keep women in their place. Fierce and emotionally charged, this novel explores the transformative power of female friendship and the courage it takes to resist injustice.

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Country
Italy
Europe
About the author
Beatrice Salvioni
Beatrice Salvioni

Beatrice Salvioni (born 1995) is an Italian novelist born in Monza, the city where The Cursed Friend is set. She studied modern philology at the Catholic University of Milan before attending the Holden School of creative writing in Turin. Her literary talent gained early recognition in 2021, when she won the Italo Calvino Prize for unpublished fiction and the Premio Raduga for her short story Il volo notturno delle lingue mozzate. Salvioni made her novelistic debut with La Malnata in 2023. The book attracted international attention for its vivid portrayal of female friendship, adolescence, and resistance to patriarchal oppression in fascist Italy. Translated into numerous languages, it introduced readers worldwide to her emotionally intense storytelling and richly atmospheric prose. In 2024, she published her second novel, La Malacarne, continuing her exploration of women’s lives and social constraints in twentieth-century Italy. Salvioni is regarded as an emerging voice in contemporary Italian literature, particularly for her ability to combine historical settings with intimate stories of rebellion, identity, and solidarity.

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Details
Published
2023
Author
Beatrice Salvioni