Francesca Sanvitale. Extract from The Man in the Park

Francesca Sanvitale is a contemporary Italian writer whose narratives have been critically well-received both in Italy and in other European countries where they have been translated. She was born in Milan in 1928 and at the age of twelve moved with her family to Florence where she later undertook a degree in Italian Lit-erature, graduating in 1952. She has worked for many years as a journalist, both in print and television and has many other publications − including short stories and essays on a range of contemporary European writers − as well as prestigious liter-ary prizes to her credit. Her first novel Il cuore borghese was published in 1972 and her other major novels are, in chronological order, Madre e figlia (1980), L’uomo del parco (1984), Verso Paola (1991), Il figlio dell’impero (1993) and L’ultima casa prima del bosco (2003). While two of her novels have been translated into English, L’uomo del parco has yet to be made available for the Anglo-American market. The follow-ing translation of some pages of L’uomo del parco characterise Ms. Sanvitale’s on-going narrative project: that reality is always mediated by both history and personal experience.