A world of thousands of women represented and recounted through a single, extraordinary voice. To the men who say, “I’ve never understood women and I never will,” this book is for you. To the women who say, “It could only happen to me; I’m the one who screws up,” this book is for you. It is a map for deciphering the girls of our time, an amulet to keep from losing your way, an antidote to fear.
“For two years I talked to thousands of women, from ages six to ninety-six, but mostly adolescent women, young women. I asked all of them the same questions: What is important to you in life? How do you get it? What do you do when you don’t get what you expect? In the replies the central theme is always love.
Love and sex, love and desire, betrayal, family, the body, love and money. It was a symphony of voices really collected, really listened to: eyes seen with eyes, laughs and tears, confessions and secrets. These stories form an orchestra of different instruments playing the same music. And from this choir of words my stories were born. They were born from reality, but they open up to the freedom of imagination; from a fragment of truth, lives and worlds unfold.”
From Concita De Gregorio’s extraordinary research a world of thousands of women is represented and recounted through a single voice that has understood their feelings and state of mind. The territory of research is Italy, but these women are citizens of the world and the voice of the author is universal. This book has been an extraordinary success in Italy, a long-seller at the top spots since its release date.
“I wouldn’t change anything about me, not even my scars. I love my scars. They’re a big part of who I am, why should I hide them?”
Beatrice Vio, paralympic fencing gold medal winner
Concita De Gregorio
Concita De Gregorio
A journalist and a writer, Concita De Gregorio has been writing for la Repubblica for many years, and now she writes the column Invece Concita. She also has a column on the weekly magazine D. She has been the editor of l’Unità from 2008 to 2011. She started the online project Cosa pensano le ragazze, which ran on Repubblica.it from the 8th of March 2016 to the 8th of March 2017. She hosted the Rai 3 television program Pane quotidiano, created and hosted FuoriRoma (Rai 3) and hosted the 2017 daily reports Da Venezia è tutto from Venice Film Festival. On Radio Capital she has been author and host of Cactus – Basta poca acqua, winner of Diversity Media Award 2019.
She published Non lavate questo sangue (2001), Una madre lo sa (2006), Malamore (2008), Un paese senza tempo (2010), Così è la vita (2011), Io vi maledico (2013), Un giorno sull’isola (2014), Mi sa che fuori è primavera (2015, Premio Ninfa Galatea, Premio Brancati), that in 2017 was adapted for the theatre and acted by Gaia Saitta and directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Cosa pensano le ragazze (2016), that inspired the docu-film Lievito madre (2017), signed with Esmeralda Calabria, Non chiedermi quando (2016), Chi sono io? (2017), Princesa e altre regine (2018), Nella notte (2019), In tempo di guerra (2019) and Lettera a una ragazza del futuro (2021). She wrote a monologue for the photography book Prima, donna (2020) by Margaret Bourke-White. Her most recent book is Un’ultima cosa (2022).
In 2019 she won Premio Arrigo Benedetti for journalism and Premio Legalitria.
- In tempo di guerra (During Wartime)
- Cosa pensano le ragazze (What Girls Think)
- Mi sa che fuori è primavera (I Think It’s Spring Outside)