Forbidden Notebook
“Examining a form of suppression that women recognize as global: the suppression of their thoughts.”
Washington Post
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A New York Times Book Review pick of Best Books Now in Paperback
A Mother Jones Best Book of the Year
This is a classic domestic novel by the Italian-Cuban feminist writer Alba de Céspedes, whose work inspired contemporary writers like Elena Ferrante
In this modern translation by acclaimed Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein, The Forbidden Notebook centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome.
Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son.
As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis’ façade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family’s fragile fabric apart.
An exquisitely crafted portrayal of domestic life, The Forbidden Notebook recognizes the universality of human aspirations.
“Examining a form of suppression that women recognize as global: the suppression of their thoughts.”
Washington Post
“A gripping slow-burn of a book.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
“De Céspedes’ account of the alienating, confining, tenacious force of the family endures."
New Inquiry (New York)
“Psychologically rich, and suffused in suspicion and suspense, Forbidden Notebook is an exquisite, tormented howl."
Financial Times (London)
“This novel…[is] intoxicating to look deeply within.”
New York Times Book Review
“Unapologetically restrict[es] its focus to the world of traditionally feminine concerns—home, family, romance, the convulsive desire for a prettier hat—while subtly engaging political issues."
Los Angeles Review of Books
“A sly indictment of marriage and generational conflict, as relevant today as it was in postwar Italy."
Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“Deftly charts the widening gap between Valeria’s increasingly desperate inner life and the roles she feels forced to play in…her claustrophobic domestic world.."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Goldstein’s translation invigorates a remarkable story, one that remains intensely relevant across time, cultures, and continents.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Cassandra Campbell has won multiple Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and the prestigious Odyssey Award for narration. She was been named a “Best Voice” by AudioFile magazine and in 2018 was inducted in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame.