My choice for book club went down a lot better than I dared to hope. Despite it's great reviews and the number of weeks in The Times top ten paperbacks, it is an unusual novel. There is no real plot or story, almost a diary of what happens to the narrator (who has the same Christian name as the author, although that itself is not her real name) over her childhood and adolescence. These take the form of a series of anecdotes, some are interesting, some are not. There are sections that are quite long and deep introspective contemplation of events and characters.
It took me nearly half the book to get into the various characters, although they are all listed at the beginning. I found the translation awkward as if trying to exactly replicate the Italian language used by the author. That might have been OK if then someone had rewritten the translation into every day English.
However, there is much to be enjoyed. The setting of Naples is particularly well described throughout. There are some characters that are highly memorable and the narrator's cleverly realised complex relationship with her friend Lila is the heart of the book. And we learn a lot about the Nepalese desire for conflict, argument and violence. So different to us English.
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