Alba de Cespedes revival continues in a tale of a young woman’s courage in 1930s fascist Italy

Fiction

Alba de Cespedes writes with an unsparing view of womanhood. Photo: Mondadori Portfolio

NJ McGarrigle

Pushkin Press continues its revival of the Italian-Cuban writer Alba de Cespedes, who has been championed by Elena Ferrante and Jhumpa ­Lahiri, in publishing her 1949 novel Her Side of the Story, following last year’s acclaimed appearance of the also long out-of-print Forbidden Notebook which originally appeared in episodic form in an Italian magazine.

Her Side of the Story, meanwhile, is a more conventional novel about a Roman girl Alessandra growing up in 1930s fascist Italy.