Forbidden Notebook

Forbidden Notebook

By Alba de Céspedes
Unabridged
100% overall 1 rating. Go to reviews
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“Examining a form of suppression that women recognize as global: the suppression of their thoughts.”

Washington Post

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

A New York Times Book Review pick of Best Books Now in Paperback

A Mother Jones Best Book of the Year

This is a classic domestic novel by the Italian-Cuban feminist writer Alba de Céspedes, whose work inspired contemporary writers like Elena Ferrante

In this modern translation by acclaimed Elena Ferrante translator Ann Goldstein, The Forbidden Notebook centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome.

Valeria Cossati never suspected how unhappy she had become with the shabby gentility of her bourgeois life—until she begins to jot down her thoughts and feelings in a little black book she keeps hidden in a closet. This new secret activity leads her to scrutinize herself and her life more closely, and she soon realizes that her individuality is being stifled by her devotion and sense of duty toward her husband, daughter, and son.

As the conflicts between parents and children, husband and wife, and friends and lovers intensify, what goes on behind the Cossatis’ façade of middle-class respectability gradually comes to light, tearing the family’s fragile fabric apart.  

An exquisitely crafted portrayal of domestic life, The Forbidden Notebook recognizes the universality of human aspirations.

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  1. Ava
    Overall Liked it

    MC with a STRONG personality, take that as you will

    While it's an excellent historical document and provides vivid details of the time, if you need to like or empathize a narrator/main character to enjoy a book, this one is not for you. She was so hypocritical in some areas of her life that it was almost like her trustworthiness to the reader was called into question. The main character was the epitome of a doting mother to her son and a cruel one to her daughter. I personally couldn't stomach the way she insisted she was being suffocated by her family, but then turned around and became unbelievably harsh to her daughter.

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