BOOK TALK: Messages from this world and another

On a recent short break to Italy (thanks to friends who volunteered and helped us keep the bookshop open), I got to read two of the books in my ‘love to read’ pile. The first was ‘The Seamstress of Sardinia’, by Italian author Bianca Pitzorno, translated by Brigid Maher and published by Text Publishing, the second was ‘The Dispossessed’, by American author Ursula K Le Guin, published by Gollancz.
We sell many copies of ‘The Seamstress of Sardinia’ in the shop, and it was recommended by a visiting Italian bookseller as a perfect feel good, beautifully written book. I love reading fiction from the country I am visiting, and this book did not disappoint.
The story, set at the turn of the last century, is narrated by a nameless sartina, or seamstress, growing up with Nonna – her grandmother and her only remaining family after an outbreak of tuberculosis. Seamstresses at that time were employed in the homes of wealthy (and some not-so-wealthy) families to sew undergarments and day-to-day clothing items.
After the death of her grandmother, she continues her trade, remaining independent. But keeping herself above water and out of the streets is no easy task. In a sense it is a coming-of-age story of a young woman who dreams of more than life has given her. We see through the stories of all her clients, friends and neighbours, the hardships of life at that time and the power wielded by the classes who had money and influence.
Pitzorno tells a beautiful story, and poignantly, she dedicates the book to her own grandmother and to the many seamstresses in parts of the world today still working in factories with long hours and horrific conditions.

Sci-fi
A multi-award-winning author, Ursula K Le Guin died in 2018 at the age of 89. She wrote ‘The Dispossessed’, a science-fiction novel, in 1974. It might be 50 years old, but the messages of this book are still so relevant for today.
The story centres on what it is to be ‘dispossessed’ on two planets, Urras and one of its moons, named Anarres. The main character is Shevek, a brilliant physicist. He is from Anarres, which was colonised by anarchists from Urras about 150 years previously. The powers that be at that time determined that the best strategy was to give the anarchists their own planet and for them to set up their idealist way of life there.
Over the course of a number of years a few million people left Urras for this new life. They cut all ties to the mother planet, apart from those to its minerals, which they mine and ship back quietly in return for being left alone.
We journey with Le Guin into a world of ‘dispossession’, where there is no money, everyone is free to work at what they want or nothing if they so wish. Everything that is ‘owned’ is owned by everyone. There is no crime, no need to steal when everything is everyone’s. There is no need for competitiveness, as there is no competition for anything. Those who live on Anarres shun ‘propertarians’ and ‘egoists’.
It is fascinating, this world. But a crack has appeared.
Shevek has developed some far-reaching theories, and it seems Anarres has no place for his thinking. The anarchists have no place for anarchical thinking it would seem. He makes contact with Urras and finds a different kind of dispossession there. There is a place for the individual, but everything is owned and competitive, and the people have been dispossessed of what is really important. It is a breathtaking story.
Both books just left me so sad that they finished. They are brilliant stories, brilliantly told with messages that remain so important for us in today’s world.

Bríd Conroy and her husband, Neil Paul, run Tertulia bookshop at The Quay, Westport. The shop hosts a regular bookclub, which meets next on October 6 at 5pm to discuss ‘Honeybees and Distant Thunder’, by Riku Onda. See www.tertuliabookshop.com for more.