A Girl Returned
Italy

A Girl Returned

by Donatella Di Pietrantonio

Family & Heritage Literary Fiction Contemporary Fiction Fiction 2017

Summary

A Girl Returned follows a thirteen-year-old girl who is suddenly sent back to the family she barely remembers after being raised by a couple she believed were her parents. Without explanation, she finds herself living with her biological family in a crowded apartment in a poor rural community in southern Italy. Surrounded by unfamiliar siblings and a mother who feels like a stranger, she struggles to understand why she was given away and why she has now been returned.

As she adjusts to her new circumstances, the girl develops a complicated relationship with her younger sister, Adriana, whose boldness and resourcefulness offer both companionship and conflict. Through the protagonist’s perspective, Donatella Di Pietrantonio explores the emotional consequences of abandonment, the divisions between social classes, and the meaning of motherhood and belonging. Written in a restrained, powerful style, the novel captures the vulnerability of adolescence and the lasting impact of secrets within families. It asks whether family is defined by blood, love, or the people who choose to stay.

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Country
Italy
Europe
About the author
Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Donatella Di Pietrantonio

Donatella Di Pietrantonio is an Italian novelist and former paediatric dentist, born in 1962 in Arsita, a small village in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. Her writing often explores motherhood, family relationships, belonging, and the lasting effects of childhood experiences. Drawing on the landscapes and cultural traditions of Abruzzo, she portrays complex family dynamics and the tensions between personal identity and social expectations. Her breakthrough novel, My Mother Is a River (2011), was followed by Bella Mia (2013) and A Girl Returned (2017), which won the prestigious Campiello Prize. Her novel The Fragile Years (L’età fragile, 2023) received the Strega Prize in 2024. Known for her restrained yet emotionally powerful prose, Di Pietrantonio examines the bonds between mothers and daughters, the wounds of abandonment, and the complicated meaning of home.

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Details
Published
2017
Author
Donatella Di Pietrantonio