Solitary

Maurizio Torchio

Translated by Anne Milano Appel

Forthcoming

 

5 x 8 inches, 240pp. March 2019

ISBN : 9780857426079

Rs  599.00 (HB)
$20.00 (HB)
£13.00 (HB)

Buy (HB)

Those who are free don't realize it, but they live on a thin layer of perforated, crumbly soil. They too can be swallowed up at any moment into the world down here. 

In the 'Hole', the pit of solitary confinement, the world shrinks—the horizon narrows, while what's outside appears less and less real.We learn more every year about the damaging effects of this unquestionably cruel and unusual punishment leaves prisoners with no human contact, sometimes for years at a time, and nearly always leads to lasting trauma.

In Solitary, Maurizio Torchio takes on the daunting task of narrating this most isolating experience, one in which the captive is not only cut off from society in the walls of a prison, but from human contact itself. Within this closed world seemingly out of time, the prisoner still yearns for human contact. Ultimately, this desire is a form of hope, reminding us that ineluctable human qualities survive even in the most inhumane spaces.

 

 

Maurizio Torchio is an Italian author based in Milan. He is the author of a collection of short stories and two novels.

 

Anne Milano Appel is an award-winning translator whose awards include the Italian Prose in Translation Award (2015) and the John Florio Prize for Italian Translation (2013). She has translated works by Claudio Magris, Primo Levi, Paolo Giordano and Roberto Saviano, among others. 

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