My Home Somewhere Else

Italian writer Marzi’s beautiful if halting debut explores the intersecting lives of two women, each of whom has been displaced from their homeland. In mid-2000s Trieste, Bosnian refugee Amila, a university student, works as a caretaker for the elderly Norina, who was forced to move there after her small Italian village was annexed in the 1950s to what is today Croatia. When Norina’s great-nephew Simon arrives from Australia, he enlists Amila in helping with his genealogical search, as he’s determined to fill in the gaps of his family tree. Simon’s presence forces both Norina and Amila to confront the pain of being uprooted from their homes. The novel’s pacing suffers at the beginning, as Marzi gets bogged down in bureaucratic minutiae, but she finds her groove by hopscotching through the nonlinear narrative, delivering a captivating portrayal of Norina’s post-WWII childhood in a little-known corner of central Europe, where a mix of Italian and Slavic culture gave rise to unique dialects in cobblestoned villages hugging the Adriatic coast. Marzi is also keenly attuned to the burden of otherness Amila is unable to shake even though by appearance she is virtually indistinguishable from her Italian classmates. It’s a nuanced and noteworthy depiction of what immigrants leave behind. (Nov.)