My Home Somewhere Else

Overview

Set in Trieste, Italy, but spanning as far as Australia, Federica Marzi’s meditation on emigration, loss, love, and identity weaves together a multigenerational story about how hard it can be to let the wounds of the past heal.

Against the summery backdrop of rugged Adriatic Sea coastline, Amila, a young Bosnian, and Norina, an elderly exile from the region of Istria in Croatia enter one another’s lives. As a blooming youthful love forces Amila to keep secrets, the bitterness of another from decades earlier tears apart two sisters. In the forced and anticipated departures and arrivals that power My Home Somewhere Else, stories of emigration reveal just how much people share in common in their completely separate lives.

Reviews

"Beautiful . . . hopscotching through the nonlinear narrative, delivering a captivating portrayal of . . . a little-known corner of central Europe, where a mix of Italian and Slavic culture gave rise to unique dialects in cobblestoned villages hugging the Adriatic coast . . . It’s a nuanced and noteworthy depiction of what immigrants leave behind."
—Publishers Weekly

Author Biography

Federica Marzi was born in Trieste, Italy and lives there today, studying foreign languages and writing. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines in Italy, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. My Home Somewhere Else is her debut novel.

Jim Hicks is editor of the Massachusetts Review. In recent years, he has served as both chair and graduate program director of the Program in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His translations include short pieces by Italo Calvino, Ananda Devi, Juan José Saer, Izet Sarajlic, and longer works by Erri De Luca. His Lessons from Sarajevo: A War Stories Primer was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2013.