I came across L’arte della gioia approximately ten years ago on a friend’s advice and read it back then. On occasions like birthdays and celebrations, I have given this book as a gift to all the women in my family, to the point that it has turned into a joke since we now have so many copies of it around. The author, Goliarda Sapienza, is this year entering the realm of pop culture, as a TV series has been made about her book, along with several documentaries about her life. However, her main work was rejected and published only after her death, and gained recognition even later in Italy.

The entire story is partly fictional and partly autobiographical. The main character comes from a poor background in early 20th-century Sicily and seeks to expand her understanding of what lies beyond her circumstances, constantly responding to her curiosities and compulsions (or ambitions?) sometimes in illicit ways and with a questionable moral perspective, which for a woman, especially in that historical context, was outrageous. Throughout her life, she questioned the concepts of work, love, motherhood, the relationship with ideology, money, wealth, and success, being driven by a craving for the next step toward freedom.