TEHRAN – A new Persian translation of “Ties”, winner of the Bridge Prize for Best Novel in 2015 by Italian Domenico Starnone, has come to Iranian bookstores.

Cheshmeh is the publisher of the book translated into Persian by Amir-Mehdi Haqiqat.

“Ties” is the story of a marriage. Like many marriages, this one has been subject to strain, to attrition, to the burden of routine. Yet it has survived intact. Or so things appear. The rupture in Vanda and Aldo's marriage lies years in the past, but if one looks closely enough, the fissures and fault lines are evident. 

Their marriage is a cracked vase that may shatter at the slightest touch. Or perhaps it has already shattered, and nobody is willing to acknowledge the fact.

Starnone’s thirteenth work of fiction is a powerful, short novel about relationships, family, love and the ineluctable consequences of one’s actions. 

Another Persian translation of “Ties” by Yalda Belarak was published in 2018 by the Vara publishing house.

Known as a consummate stylist and beloved as a talented storyteller, Starnone is the winner of Italy’s most prestigious literary award The Strega.

Born in 1943 in Saviano near Naples, Starnone is an Italian writer, screenwriter and journalist.

He has worked for several newspapers and satirical magazines, including L’Unità, Il Manifesto, Tango and Cuore, usually about episodes of his life as a high school teacher. He also works as a screenwriter.

Movies “La Scuola”, “The Ties”, both by Daniele Luchetti, “Auguri Professore” by Riccardo Milani, and “Denti” by Gabriele Salvatores are based on his books.

One of his fictional books is “Via Gemito”, which won the Premio Strega in 2001. It was suggested in 2006 that the mysterious writer Elena Ferrante, author of “L’amore molesto” and “I giorni dell'abbandono”, is Starnone himself. 

Starnone is married to Anita Raja, the literary translator who was said to be the author of “Elena Ferrante” in a report by the Italian investigative journalist Claudio Gatti in 2016.

In 2017, an international research work has compared the language of the mysterious novelist with 150 novels, revealing singular similarities with Starnone. 

The same research team does not rule out that Ferrante’s novels are the result of the collaboration between Starnone and his wife Anita Raja.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Domenico Starnone’s novel “Ties”.

MMS/YAW