Maria

Lalla Romano tells the story of a small family in Piedmont during the 1930s and 1940s. She describes the relationship between two women who differ greatly in their origins, culture, and way of life: Maria, a peasant, and a teacher, writer, and painter, in whose house Maria works as a servant. In her sober, precise, and sometimes almost austere language, Lalla Romano paints a portrait of Maria. At the same time, she sketches the portrait of Maria's village, with its people, landscape, and the era marked by World War II. The bond between the two women, their soul connection, becomes evident when the narrator's child is born. As the child grows, this connection becomes increasingly apparent. Thus, in her novel "Maria," which she refers to as "a true story," Lalla Romano essentially tells the story of this child, of children and their mothers.

"Maria," the first of Lalla Romano's many novels, was published in 1953 by the Turin publisher Einaudi and won the Premio Internazionale Veillon in 1954.