Nel mare c'è la sete

by Erica Mou

Maria e Nicola sono una coppia rodata, lui pilota di aerei, cuoco e genero perfetto (per quanto esprima la sua ansia in dolori notturni che gli stringono il corpo), lei un po’ meno perfetta, una di quelle donne che in borsa non trovano mai nulla e che, soprattutto, molti anni prima ha ucciso Estate, sua sorella. La famiglia di origine si è strutturata intorno a questo lutto, il padre ha smesso di andare in ufficio, la madre si è sforzata di avere rapporti con lei, la figlia rimasta. Dopo aver passato anni a vivacchiare senza uno scopo, dopo il classico periodo a Londra, Maria ha messo su un eccentrico i clienti vanno da lei perché pensi e compri per loro regali importanti per persone che lo sono altrettanto. Il suo lavoro consiste nel confezionare l’amore e l’affetto con un bel fiocco, per chi non ha il tempo di farlo. La vita di Maria però, sempre in bilico, un giorno si incrina in ventiquattro ore, il tempo di quattro pasti, ha un negozio che non vuole, un compagno che non riesce a lasciare, e una scoperta che la porterà a riconsiderare tutto ciò che la circonda. In un romanzo che lega un tono leggero a una sconcertante franchezza, Erica Mou demolisce la retorica zuccherosa delle relazioni d’amore e racconta come dietro ogni coppia perfetta possa nascondersi un doppio fondo inaspettato.

Genres: Fiction, Italy, Italian Literature

175 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2020

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The folk performer Erica Mou is perhaps better known in her native Italy, an award-winning singer and songwriter who has been recognized for her lyrics as well as for her vocals. Thirsty Sea is her debut novel, a contemporary piece that cobbles together prose and poetry, memoir and stream of consciousness. Reading this work, I can see why Mou is prized as a songwriter: she is unafraid to probe her first-person narrator's psyche, using a poetic prose that is more direct than metaphorical. Thirsty Sea forms an interesting conversation with Mou's other recent projects, perhaps having more in common thematically with her 2017 album Bandiera sulla Luna and slightly earlier work than her 2021 album Nature. Nature has an easy listening quality to it, along with bilingual lyrics (English and Italian) to some of the tracks. The release of Nature around the time of the publication Thirsty Sea may signal a diversification of Mou’s output or at least an effort to expand her audience. I confess to liking her lyrics more than her long-form prose; her storytelling seems best geared toward snatches of verse than a book-length exploration of her themes. Still, it's great to see Mou try a project like this and it serves as an introduction to her more prominent vocal work for some of us who read more contemporary fiction than listen to Italian pop music. The novel is translated into English by Clarissa Botsford from the original Nel mare c'è la sete and published by the Canterbury-based Héloïse Press, a small publisher specializing in contemporary female narratives.

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense and almost claustrophobic read, but in a clever, thought-provoking way.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today it's twenty five years since I killed my sister.

Thirsty Sea is Clarissa Botsford's translation of Erica Mou's Nel mare c'è la sete.

This is the first novel from an exciting new small independent publisher Héloïse Press founded by Aina Marti:

Héloïse Press champions world-wide female talent. Héloïse’s careful selection of books gives voice to emerging and well-established female writers from home and abroad. With a focus on intimate, visceral and powerful narratives, Héloïse Press brings together women’s issues and literary sophistication.

I was alerted to the book via the weekly online Glue Factory event where Mou, Botsford and Marti appeared together to discuss their work together on the novel. The translation was highly collaborative as Botsford explains in a Translator's Note: Beyond Translation, which comes before the novel, an act she describes as trans-creation:

I was thrilled to be asked by Héloïse Press to translate their first women-in-translation project, Thirsty Sea. It feels like such a perfect fit, touching on so many aspects of my own work: Erica Mou’s prose is intrinsically musical, her narrator deeply human, with all her flaws, linguistic tics and curiosities, and her talent for turning life’s questions back-to-front as a form of relentless self-accusation. Challenges for the translator are trip-wired into the text, and the author has often given me her own suggestions as to how to dodge her booby traps. She and the publisher have allowed me absolute freedom to adapt the text in order to preserve its intentions. It’s hard to imagine anything better!

The reference to the intrinsic musicality of the text relates to the original author's main artistic career, as a singer, and the booby traps include the postscripts to each sectionwith a 'word title' followed by a brief poem, one that often involves a play on the different meaning of the root words of the title:

Breakwater

Thirsty Sea
never rely on how much there is.

As the narrator tells us:

This compound word game in my head is the imaginary chair I stand on, from which I recite my thoughts when I need to disengage (what a good word) from my existence. I really love words that contain other words, when they are simultaneously the same but new.

Our first-person narrator, Maria, is 32 when the novel opens. Having spent some time post university in London, where she became very close friends with an American, Ruth, she moved back some years ago to her native Bari. She now lives with her partner, Nicola, an airline pilot, and their imaginary dog. Maria runs a small business (an idea she dreamed up with Ruth) called "Be Present":

My job is to find the right gift for the right person. My clients can be divided into two types:

1) People who are more insecure than they are imaginative

2) People who are lazier than they are caring

Many women find themselves in the first category.

The second group, the lazy uncaring ones, are mostly men, who claim something as theirs as soon as they've laid hands on it. Slow down, guys, you just set foot on the moon and planted a flag. That doesn't mean you can call it home.

The main action of the novel takes place over a 24 hour period, starting with Maria returning home from work to find her mother is visiting. The date, which passes Nicola by, despite them being together for over 7 years, is the 25th anniversary of a defining event in Maria's life: when she (in her words) killed her sister, who was aged just 3 at the time.

Every time she talked to me, she said it wasn't my fault. You know that, don't you?

Then she started sending me to the first psychologist who, every week, told me that it wasn't my fault. You know, don't you, that it's not your fault?

I would nod to keep them happy but I couldn't understand what they were so worried about. After all, I'd lived four years of my life on my own before Summer came along. My sister wasn't like me, Mamma, Papa, our house, our two Maria grandmothers, the swing, the Pimpa video tapes. My sister hadn't been there forever. So it seemed logical to me that life without her would be possible.

I know, Ma, I know, doctor, it wasn't my fault.

But in reality Maria is still haunted by her belief that she is a killer. And Nicola's inability to appreciate the turmoil inside Maria, despite him being at face value the perfect attentive partner, is one of her key frustrations, and a reason why she refuses his marriage proposals:

Look inside me, my love. Change the lens on your camera, ditch the close-up and zoom in deeper. Come in, Nicola, try to see beyond what's physically here.

Do you really believe I don't sleep because of the coffee?

He's always vigilant, always attentive, he notices immediately if I've cut my hair or moved a piece of furniture.

My mother and my friends tell me how lucky I am to have a man who notices the small things, the things their own partners don't see.

Ruth would never have said that.

She would have rolled a cigarette, her eyebrow raised (just One, her right), and wanted to know all about his childhood, his dreams, his birth chart, what sex positions he likes, in the light, in the dark.

Because a love affair is not a puzzle in the back of the newspaper.

Spot the twenty differences between these two images.

Bravo, Nicola, you found them all. I feel like I'm in a relationship with Jessica Fletcher.

For in reality, Maria has a secret from her mother and lover, and a life-changing decision to make the next day.

A wonderful first novel from an exciting new press. A contender (if entered) for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the International Booker.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maria, the narrator of Thirsty Sea, the debut novel by Italian musician Erica Mou, is at the crossroads of life: She doesn't really like her job of helping people find the perfect gift, she's drifting apart from her long term partner and she carries the guilt of a childhood traumatic incident, which is revealed slowly in the novel.

In Thirsty by the Sea we experience the world through Maria's eyes; her boyfriend's controlling habits, her unconventional life in a town full of conventional inhabitants, her relationships and the rather terrible customers she has to deal with. In short we are viewing a thirty year old trying her best to survive the challenges that life throws at her.

It is inevitable but one cannot help seeing traces of Fleabag in Thirsty Sea: the way the narrator acts is not dissimilar to Fleabag, the big tragedy is revealed gradually and it also is a criticism of the way men treat women. Saying that this is not a tribute or an Italian version of that. There's something charming about the way Maria expresses her daily frustrations with the world and we are active participants as well.

I liked Thirsty Sea, I was suffering from a small book hangover and this helped me out of it. There's something quiet and powerful about this novel, which made it a joy to read. The flowing translation by Clarissa Botsford helped as well. In her foreword, the translator states that in her original language the prose is lyrical and I can definitely say that it was captured perfectly in this wonderful little novel. Generally I am a bit wary about millennium problems but the things Maria goes through are universal, making the book relatable to anyone who has gone through what Maria has. A gem of a book.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up as a ‘wildcard’ not knowing anything about it and I absolutely ADORED it. The writing style is wonderful, I could read it everyday. The story and the main character were so rich and nuanced, it was hard to put the book down. Hopeful for another book by this fantastic author translator team.

[SamB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to get into this - I think I was distracted thinking so much about the form after the translator's introduction - but by the end it had me. Quite beautifully written, and a wonderful meditation on guilt, family and the weight put on our shoulders by the world around us.

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 3.5 - 4 Stars
This, the first offering of a new publishing venture Héloïse Press, brings a fresh young Italian voice into English. Unfolding over the course of one day, 32 year-old Maria is haunted by the death of her young sister 25 years earlier. She cannot let go of the belief that she is somehow responsible for her death and that obsession has hindered her ability to build healthy relationships with those around her including her patient and forgiving partner. The author is a singer-songwriter and her playful narrative voice is very infectious. Her narrator has a strong and not especially likeable personality which makes for an interesting dynamic. It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for this promising young author.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2022/09/03/so...

[Nataliya Deleva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gobbled Thirsty Sea ravenous for the freshness, wit and the surprising language this book oozes with. It’s a powerful tale about guilt and the way we carry it deeply inside us. Poetic and rhythmic, the narrative meanders between the past, when an unimaginable event has taken place twenty-five years ago, and the present day, revealing the narrator’s sometimes disturbing thoughts, her human flows, while she tries to reckon with the past.

Magnificent, compelling debut from Erica Mou in Clarissa Botsford’s masterful translation.

[L De Vincenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, well structured, unpredictable, poetic, relatable, sometimes an almost freeform exploration of language (which has made me want to read the original Italian version..starting now!) but that somehow perfectly captures the feeling of entrapment the main character feels.

[Stacey Chin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

PARTE I

"Nontiscordardimé. Cerco fiori con petali dispari per cominciare con m’ama e finire uguale."

"E di tempo si può morire? Forse mio padre ci potrebbe riuscire. Che è un’altra cosa rispetto al morire di vecchiaia. Morire di tempo vuol dire solo aspettare, vuol dire morire di polvere, vuol dire morire di pazienza, vuol dire erodere nel vento, lentamente."

PARTE II

"Lo vedi che non c’è differenza tra il muro di una fortezza e quello della tua stanza se dentro c’è la guerra?"

"A voler stare in troppi regni si finisce per risultare inadatti, ovunque."

"Siamo lacci di scarpe, inciampiamo in noi stessi."

"Nella sofferenza non esiste una classifica. Chiaro? Fare a gara tra i dolori non ha senso, tanto non vince nessuno. Perdono tutti.”

PARTE III

"Ma poi, in fondo, io vorrei dire a Lucia che i telegiornali sono noiosi, che le scarpe col velcro sono carine (soprattutto quelle che quando cammini si illuminano), che i contratti hanno le clausole scritte in piccolo e ti fregano sempre e che il mercoledì, a pensarci bene, viene sia prima che dopo del venerdì. E quando la vita è un cerchio, non ha senso mettersela in ordine."

PARTE IV

"Ci dimentichiamo spesso l’origine delle cose che stringiamo tra le mani, la necessità iniziale che ha mosso tutto il resto. Troppo ansiosi di aggiornarci a un sistema più sofisticato, di annebbiarci di optional."

"Ma la meta è la meta. Il viaggio è solo lo spazio di tempo che ci serve per trovare la risposta alla domanda: dov’è che voglio andare? Ma scoprirlo non basta. Poi ci devi andare, davvero."

"I film, i quadri, i romanzi che preferiamo sono quelli che ci ricordano la vita vera. E le giornate che preferiamo della nostra vita sono quelle che ci ricordano i romanzi, i quadri, i film. Siamo fatti male Libertà, cerchiamo le cose sbagliate nei luoghi giusti."

"Dovrei fare più spesso cose che non servono. Servire è un verbo che toglie la libertà."

"Ci basta qualche terremoto e un bel po’ di tempo, per diventare una cosa totalmente diversa dall’origine, nuova. Il punto è che è sempre tutta una questione di ricetta, mica di ingredienti. Le materie prime sono le stesse, ma serve capire in che modo mescolarle."

[LindaJ^ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small novel spans about 24 hours in real time but what we learn about Maria during that span covers more than 24 years.

Maria lives with partner Nicola in Bari, Italy. They have been together for 7 years. He is an airline pilot who flies around Europe - Dublin, Milan, etc. Maria owns a business called "Be Present." What Maria does is buy presents for other people who are too busy, too unimaginative, too lazy to do it themselves. Her first, and still favorite, customer is a doctor whose wife has memory issues and often thinks it is her birthday. Maria makes sure there is always a present available that will spark a memory.

Maria is haunted by the death of her sister 25 years ago. Despite what her mother tells her, her therapist(s) tell her, and she tells herself, Maria thinks it was she who killed her sister. When the book opens, it is the 25th anniversary of her sister's death. The reader spends the next 24 hours inside Maria's head as she remembers things and wrestles with a decision, maybe more than one.

This book has an interesting way of segmenting Maria's thoughts. The author uses a combination word followed by a two-line poem that expresses different meanings of the works in the combination.

For an excellent and more detailed look at the book and the small press that published it, see Paul Fulcher's review -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Marika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molto carino. Si legge in poche ore e non ti lascia per giorni.

A tratti ho odiato un po la retorica e la pesantezza della protagonista; in compenso, ad altri tratti, ho apprezzato molte immagini e costruzioni.

[Oscreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devoured!!

[Chiara Liberio · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s often the case, when you’re grown up, that the imperatives extinguish the stars”

This is a brave, wonderfuly written novel that delivers the harshest blows and most harrowing truths with incredible levity in a story of fragile relationships, loss, guilt and personal and family trauma.

Nicola is a jewel of a boyfriend, or at least this is what Maria’s mother thinks: he is adoring, handsome, altruistic, loyal, stable, precise, a pilot, a lover of forms (forms of what?). Like Maria, called after her grandmother, he is called after his grandfather and the latter’s grandfather before him, the perfect match to ensure continuity or, as Maria puts it, the non evolution of the species. We first meet the trio as Maria comes back home and finds Nicola, who has just cooked perfect risotto, and her mother visiting on a special day – the anniversary of when Maria killed her little sister 25 years before. Maria has lived with this burden (a block of marble on her chest) all her life, and as an adult she has opened a quirky gift shop -- something that allows her to think of other people’s desires and not herself. In the space of four meals the cracks in her relationship and in her family will emerge. Maria will also have to decide whether to keep her child.

One thing to be admired is the storytelling. Maria has retained the voice of the child she was at the time of the accident, which blend with her perspective as an adult woman. The resulting voice is curious, ironic, irreverent, humorous and penetrating and displays a childlike frankness and sense of wonder through the most vivid, poetic imagery and playful wordplay. For example, the characters are defined by buckets of colour paint -- white for Nicola, black for Maria, browns for the mother, and often by their load of little bricks.

The English translation by Clarissa Botsword in collaboration with the author is superb, the rendering of details from Italian family life and rituals that make up the theme of legacy is spot on (very fine and truthful rendering of details and memories) and, last but not least, the theme of women’s choice to procreate urgent and timely.

[ebonee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brave and definitely worth the read!

[Sabrina Anzil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mi dispiace, sarò io probabilmente, ma è un libro che non sono riuscita a portare al termine e mi capita raramente. Non riesco a leggerlo, è volutamente scritto a modo suo e si capisce. È frettoloso, pieno di frasi brevissime, non so spiegarlo. Mi dispiace perché avrei voluto approfondire la lettura dati gli apprezzamenti fatti su Kindle ma non sono riuscita davvero a leggero. Nonostante ciò non me la sento di dargli solo una stella, perché so che in parte potrebbe essere colpa mia. Chiedo scusa 🙏🏻

[Sonia Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a 4.5*

[Daniela Sampognaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho apprezzato lo stile di scrittura dell'autrice che è riuscita a far emergere l'apatia della protagonista causata dal suo vissuto.
Nonostante tutto il libro non mi ha particolarmente colpito: non amo i flussi di coscienza e a tratti è noioso specialmente nella parte centrale.

[Beppe Longo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro con un atmosfera rarefatta, come camminare verso un Ottomila dove il senso di libertà ad un certo punto viene a mancare perche' la carenza di ossigeno ti opprime. Un gran bel debutto

[Claudio Scarafia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romanzo carino, a tratti filosofico e riflessivo, a tratti un pochino pesante e tedioso, ma tutto sommato mi è piaciuto.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was originally published in Italian as "Nel mare c'è la sete" by Erica Mou (the stage name of an Italian singer/songwriter – this her debut novel).

Its English translation is the first publication by the new UK small press - Héloïse Press which “champions world-wide female talent ….. [giving] voice to emerging and well-established female writers from home and abroad. With a focus on intimate, visceral and powerful narratives, Héloïse Press brings together women’s issues and literary sophistication.”
So kudos to the press (whose elegantly presented novels seem to me to nicely match their aim) for not just including the translator (Clarissa Botsford)’s name on the front cover (as all but the most stubborn small presses do that) but for going further and not just including but leading with a detailed translators note.

This one is particularly useful – as Clarissa Botsford explains in detail both the biggest challenges of the translation (in particular the compound/double meaning words which are not just crucial to the narrator’s worldview but to the very structure of the novel) and the collaborative process she and the author went through to deal with this - in many cases changing elements of the novel completely – a process she calls trans-creation.

Every chapter has a postscript: a title word and a short poem. The 'title word' is related to the content, message or significance of the section, while the short poem is related to the meaning of one or both parts of the word. In some instances, we changed the word, in others we changed the poem and rewrote it from scratch to match the word, in others again we were inspired to change both, in Mou's words, 'improving on the original. "This word has been left behind compared to the others we've already worked on,' she would say. And off we would go, brainstorming and throwing things in the air.

The novel itself I found good but perhaps a little more underwhelming – a slightly quirky variation on some familiar literary themes (childhood tragedy and how it reverberates on relationships later in life).

The narrator is the 32 year old Maria who lives in her hometown of Bari, Italy with her partner Nicola (an airline pilot) and an imaginary dog whose existence (or lack thereof) perhaps speaks to the biggest tension between Nicola and Maria – his desire for marriage and increasingly a child, a level of permanency and commitment which Maria struggles with to face and which gives the story its rather inevitable narrative tension over 24 hours as Maria faces a Doctor’s appointment and a decision.

Maria runs a small business – Be Present – which offers boutique present sourcing services for her clients – an idea she took from Ruth an American with whom she briefly lived in England for an intense 12 week period.

The 24 hours are particularly resonant for Maria as it is the 25th anniversary of when her younger sister Summer died in a childhood accident for which Maria has always blamed herself and which drove a seemingly permanent wedge between her and her father.

Over those hours through Maria’s thoughts we learn of the wider emotional gaps between her and her mother/father and her and Nicola, so much of it relating to the different ways each of them has dealt with grief – and we are also introduced to a wider list of well crafted side-characters (particularly some of Maria’s customers)

A strong opening publication by the Press – 3.5 stars.

[bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a book that i bought entirely for the cover, but also for the blurb. it reads like nothing i've ever read and you really do feel the disconnect of a person who is going through denial on a profound level. the ending wasn't what i'd expected and it really cressendo'd in to the conclusion of the book. definitely going to reread this at some stage, 1000%

[Sekaringtias · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / I finished this in one sitting. It's raw and unapologetic in its style and arc. I liked how musical it is, and how the books feels like an urgency - aiming at words and thoughts being let out, than to please the so called readers.

[Hannah Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of lyrical imagery and tough topics, I could tell this author was a musician! Small poems intertwined with a whirlwind narrative found for a beautiful novel sharing grief, turmoil and life’s difficult questions.

[Graziano Fusilli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se devo essere sincero, non ho capito cosa volesse trasmettere l'autrice e dove volesse arrivare.
Il libro tratta anche temi importanti, ma non mi è arrivato il senso di quello che è stato affrontato.

[Lorena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nontiscordardimé, cerco fiori con petali dispari per cominciare con m'ama e finire uguale.

Siamo lacci di scarpe. Inciampiamo in noi stessi

Se ti fermi ad asciugare con la carta i miei pensieri, strizzali bene in un secchiello, poi pescaci poesie e recitamele

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredibly beautiful , poetic and profound.

[shannon chapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 <3

[Jessica Laws · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5