Blue Hunger

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The copyright to all contents of this site is held either by Granta or by the individual authors, and none of the material may be used elsewhere without written permission. Not my cup of tea, but I would recommend it to readers seeking slow-paced, character-heavy, plotless novels. A district calculated to demonstrate something, the idea of an aseptic, redemptive, to-be-completed future.

Still, it’s an enjoyable read, if you can get past the odd slightly uncomfortable moment, and Richards’ work is excellent, too. To Beijing in winter, in the snow, on a tour, which, before Tiananmen Square, took them to a hotel room where they had to silently observe a sales demonstration for a knife set. Eradicating everything, reaching into the heavens with glass and steel, reaching like a demon pleading for light. Maybe something got lost in translation since this book was originally written in Italian… but I was not a fan of this one. I had an unpleasant sensation as if everything – the downpour, the blue, the arched concrete bridges, the abrupt lunges of the clutch – were coming into my head and getting stuck there.They had an irritating geometric pattern, something like the plastic fencing used on balconies to keep cats from jumping off. Xin da Roma vola a Shangai credendo di scappare dal dolore lancinante per la morte del fratello gemello Ruben, si crea una nuova identità, si lancia in un amore tossico e autodistruttivo ma ben presto comprende che la sua fame d'amore non può essere colmata. Una cosa la so, e cioè che mi ha tenuta incollata alle pagine perché sicuramente c'era del potenziale in queste pagine torbide, ossessive e disperate. After her twin's death, a solitary young woman leaves Rome for Shanghai, the city where her brother Ruben had long dreamed of opening a restaurant. Overall, while others will take a more positive view, I didn’t enjoy this as much as Di Grado’s other work as I don’t think there’s really enough new or different here.

Seeking her lost twin in both a city and a relationship that threatens to overwhelm her, Ruben sinks far more than she swims. Like Greenwell’s characters, Ruben and Xu have sex in public places, turning abandoned slaughterhouses and cinemas into locations of transgression. Viola Di Grado’s charming prose romps through chthonic worlds of nibbling insects, ammoniac seepage and shattering depression, using language that is both glib and scrumptious. Viola Di Grado offers us a brilliant, highly immersive story about the need to consume and be consumed, love, messiness, and the power of language. Blue Hunger is irresistible, evocative, dripping with desire, and brilliantly written-Viola Di Grado is a genius.The impetus for this life-changing decision is the death of her twin brother, Ruben, whose lifelong dream was to move to the city and open a restaurant. Amidst the carnal lasciviousness, there is tenderness too; they discover the city together, studying the architecture of buildings in scenes that reminded me of Kogonada’s 2017 soft-spoken masterpiece Columbus. A moment in which the two images – the wicked fox and the amorous woman – no longer coincided, their edges separating like a deck of cards thrown on the floor. Mostly alone, she wanders the streets and adopts her brother’s name, Ruben, subsuming her own identity. Blue Hunger (translated by Jamie Richards) focuses on an unnamed young Italian woman, introducing us to her shortly after her move to Shanghai to be an Italian teacher.