EVENTS

NOMINATED FOR THE STREGA PRIZE 2025

A lyrical and intimate account of a mother's last journey by the author of Thirsty Sea.

When Erica’s dream career as an indie singer is about to launch, her mother, Lucia, needs to tell her ‘something you'll hate me for’. Erica fears it refers to her plan to live with the man she loves. But against all odds, Lucia tells Erica that her life is approaching the end.

During nine months, Lucia shares her final journey in a diary. Years later, Erica finally finds the courage to read her mother's notes, to retrace the nine months of her mother's illness just as she embarks on the journey to become a mother.

Erica’s lyrical story is born from Lucia's intimate words in an attempt to exorcise pain and fear. In this tender exchange of voices, Erica rediscovers her own mother, while discovering herself as a mother.

Erica Mou (Apulia, 1990) is an Italian singersongwriter with numerous international awards and seven studio albums to her name. Her debut novel, Thirsty Sea, made the 2022 TLS Books of the Year list. Something You’ll Hate Me For, which met with critical acclaim in Italy, is her second book.

Clarissa Botsford (www.clarissabotsford.com) is a literary translator,musician, and Humanist wedding and funeral celebrant and trainer. In addition to Mou’s Thirsty Sea, her translations include novels by Ardone, Baricco, De Gregori, Dones, Levi, Magrelli and Naspini.