MAROSIA CASTALDI / RICHARDS, JAMIE
u003cpu003e u003cpu003e u003cpu003e u003cpu003e u003cpu003e u003cpu003eRosa, midwayu003cbru003ethrough life, is alone. Her husband passed away long ago, and her cosmopolitanu003cbru003edaughter is already out the door, keen to marry and move to the city. At looseu003cbru003eends, Rosa decides to transplant herself to the flat, foggy Lombardy provincesu003cbru003efrom her native Naples and there finds a way to renew herself--by opening au003cbru003erestaurant, and in the process coming to a new appreciation of the myriadu003cbru003erelationships possible between women, from friendship to caregiving tou003cbru003ecollaboration to emotional and physical love.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003eUnconventional in style and yet rivetinglyu003cbru003eaccessible, u003ciu003eThe Hunger of Womenu003c/iu003e is a novel infused with the pleasures ofu003cbru003ethe body and the little shocks of daily life. Made up of Rosa's observations, u003cbru003ereflections, and recipes, it tracks her mental journey back to reconnect withu003cbru003eher own embattled mother's age-old wisdom, forward to her daughter'su003cbru003einconceivable future, and laterally to the world of Rosa's new community ofu003cbru003elovers and customers. A tribute not only to the tradition of women's writing onu003cbru003ehearth and home but to the legacy of such boundary-breaking feminist writers asu003cbru003eGertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, and Helene Cixous, u003ciu003eThe Hunger of Womenu003c/iu003e isu003cbru003enothing less than a literary feast.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003e u003cpu003e