Italian Narrative
Two days after connecting on a dating app, J. and the protagonist of this novel meet on the platform of a London station. They know little about each other, but they have exchanged photos of their bookshelves, letting their literary tastes do the talking. The attraction between them is immediately strong, with physical intimacy preceding intellectual connection. J. comes from Canada, has a partner with whom she shares an ethical non-monogamous relationship, and is fleeing from a memory that is difficult even to utter. The narrator grew up in a small town in Veneto but has lived in large European cities since she was eighteen, alternating the euphoria of those new spaces with a sense of uprootedness. Together they find the courage to dive into the unprotected waters of desire and pain, to swim through the depths of memory until they find the words to tell their story.
Synopsis source: Bompiani.it
Publication date: 15 January 2025
Giorgia Tolfo, born in Marostica in 1984, is a writer, translator and independent researcher based in London, with a PhD in Comparative and Postcolonial Literature. Co-founder of the Festival of Italian Literature in London (FILL), she works in the field of Digital Humanities at institutions such as the British Library and the Alan Turing Institute. She contributes to cultural and critical publications, including Il Tascabile, minima&moralia and Doppiozero. As a translator, she has brought works by contemporary authors such as Chantal Akerman and Fatima Daas into Italian. She made her debut as an author in 2025 with Wild Swimming (Bompiani), a text that oscillates between memoir and novel, characterised by fragmented and symbolic writing.
Wild Swimming has been selected by various book clubs (such as ChiassoLetteraria) and is among the candidates for the 2025 Strega Prize.
