The Director of the Italian Cultural Institute

Silvio Marchetti

is pleased to invite you to the presentation of

70% Acrylic 30% Wool

A Novel by Viola Di Grado

(Europa Editions, translated by Michael Reynolds)

in the presence of the Author

Monday, October 28th, 6:00 PM

at the Italian Cultural Institute

In an innovative, thrilling literary style inspired by the syncopated rhythms of modern music, Viola Di Grado has written a most unusual love story, one as unpredictable as the human heart. Camelia is a young Italian woman who lives with her mother in Leeds, a city where it is always December and winter has been underway for such a long time that nobody is old enough to have seen what came before.

Camelia has dropped out of university and translates instruction manuals for an Italian washing machine manufacturer; her mother, Livia Mega, once a renowned flautist, spends her days inside photographing holes in the house. Camelia and her mother communicate in a language of their own invention, in which words play no part. The lives of these two women have been undone by a calamity in their recent past, and there seems little or no possibility of ever finding their way back to a normal life. But one day Camelia meets Wen, a local shop owner. To win Camelia's affections, Wen begins teaching her Chinese ideograms. Through this new language of signs and subtle variations Camelia learns to see the world differently and, in it, a chance for renewal.

"[Di Grado's] black comedy, pungent metaphors and controlled ambiguity announce the arrival of a considerable talent." Times Literary Supplement

Viola Di Grado was born in Catania, Italy, in 1988. Her first book, 70% Acrylic 30% Wool was winner of the 2011 Campiello First Novel Award and a finalist for the Strega, Italy's most prestigious literary prize. Her second novel, Cuore Cavo, has been a commercial and critical success. She lives and studies in London.

A reception and book signing will follow.

Reservations kindly suggested. 

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