💡Complex ties bind a family on the verge of collapse. In his 2014 novel, Ties, Italian author and journalist, Domenico Starnone, takes readers on a dramatic journey within the walls of a crumbling, fragmented family trying to preserve what’s left of itself. Ties has garnered attention from readers around the world, particularly in the region, seeing as this was the first of Starnone’s novels to be translated into Arabic.

The plot: Starnone tells the story of a family that consists of husband Aldo, his wife Vanda, and their two children, Sandro and Anna. Aldo and Vanda’s marriage is strained, and soon turns their lives into an unbearable hell. Though the couple married for love, boredom soon crept in. Aldo entered an affair with a younger woman, leaving his family behind. Vanda was heavily impacted, and becomes a dominating personality who desperately tries to take control over everything in her life. Over the course of three chapters, we find out more about the family.

An exploration of human nature. In this captivating literary work, Starnone attempts to delve into the depths of the human soul and uncover the complexities of family relationships, through a narrative that gives Vanda and Aldo — and their young children — the chance to tell their stories, the way they lived them. The author allows his characters to defend themselves and explain their actions, reminding the reader that not everything is always as it seems.

A beautiful, insightful read. Despite discussing a grim topic, Ties is a beautiful novel that offers lessons on how to write a story about love, family, and betrayal — without excess or boredom. The novel is relatively short at under 200 pages, so you can finish it off in just one sitting. This is a novel about the human psyche — which can either be a hit or miss. For us, it was a hit. If this sounds like your kind of literature, we’d urge you to read it.

WHERE TO FIND IT- You can find the e-book on Amazon, and you can also find the book in Arabic at Shorouk Bookstores, Aseer Elkotob, Neel Wa Furat bookstore, Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah bookstore, and Al Karma books.

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