Nives, by Sacha Naspini

 

This is the first audiobook I've ever listened to and it was a wonderful discovery. We meet Nives, a Tuscan woman who has just been widowed, but feels an absence of emotion. After the funeral, after her daughter and grandchildren have left, though, she realizes that she is lonely.

During her soliloquies, we learn that Nives has a tough exterior, a woman strong in both spirit and limb, one who has helped run a farm, raise a daughter, and run a household. In her loneliness, she becomes attached to one of her hens, the one she has named Giacomina. This hen has a complacent manner, despite struggling with a bad foot, and Nives finds her endearing. Her sudden loneliness has caused Nives to examine her life, and this new habit of spending time in a company of a hen has Nives worried about herself, wondering why this hen is enough company to replace her husband. One evening, when Nives is watching TV with her avian pet beside her, she notices that Giacomina has been put in a trance. Or something like that. She cannot wake this bird up. Panicked, she feels that she has no choice but to make a late night call to the town's vet. At first, their conversation is comic. Loriano Bottai, the vet, has the attitude that perhaps Nives has lost her mind a little, calling him at night over a possibly hypnotized hen, and he tries to end the call, but never finds a graceful way of doing so. Meanwhile, the conversation has moved away from Giacomina, to things that happened long ago in their town, and then to them. I got the feeling that their Tuscany was a small village where everyone knew everyone, and fascinated that in the beginning of this conversation, I would never have guessed how well Nives and the vet had known each other. In fact, they share a secret. During this phone call that spans almost all of this novel, Nives dives into the past, sharing all her pain, her unrequited love and her anger. This a riveting conversation with several twists, as Nives shares some startling facts. On the death of her husband, Nives is looking back on her life with him, pondering the meaning of that life, what it's all been about. In the end, this venting has been so cathartic that Nives feels suddenly blessed and happy for the first time in her life. And sometime during all this chatter, Giacomina has woken up, gotten off the couch, and gone searching for food. (I loved that metaphor). This was an profound story, beautifully narrated by Lesa Lockford. Many thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media, LLC for this rich experience.