Maiden Name

Rosa — stubborn as mountain flowers breaking through rock to the sun — runs away from her parental home with her beloved, opens a tavern with him, and after her husband’s death becomes the head of the family. Her daughter Selma — tender as an embroidery that she never lets go of — marries against her mother’s advice. When her chosen one betrays her, wasting the dowry, she keeps the family together for the sake of her daughters. Patricia, Lavinia, and Marinella inherit not only the traits of their mother and grandmother but also family traumas. They will have to remember the lessons of Selma and Rosa to begin living by their own dreams.

Italian critics call Aurora Tamigio's debut novel "the 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' with a feminine face," placing it alongside Natalia Ginzburg's "Family Lexicon" and the prose of Grazia Deledda. From the patriarchal 1920s to the tumultuous 1980s, from silent consent to finding a voice — in this chronicle of female strength and solidarity, preserving the maiden name becomes a symbol of freedom.