Chi dice e chi tace, a finalist in the latest edition of the Strega Prize, written by Chiara Valerio (already author of La gioia piccola d'esser quasi salvi, La matematica è politica) and published by Sellerio, will be adapted for the cinema by Nightswim, which has acquired the rights for the film adaptation.
The plot of the book:
Scauri, overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, is the last town in Lazio, a place neither beautiful nor ugly, with its own disheveled grace. Vittoria moved here in the Seventies, she arrived with Mara, perhaps she adopted her, perhaps she kidnapped her, many things are said. Vittoria, with her laugh that starts low and ends high, is a detached and affable woman, welcoming and evasive; she bought a house where everyone can come and go, she opened a boarding house for animals when in town the vets only worry about cows and rabbits. Vittoria has never argued with anyone, she has never changed her haircut. Her generosity is inexhaustible, some of her habits have become common fashion. The town doesn't understand her, yet it feels attracted to her.
Vittoria is found dead in the bathtub, a stupid accident, an unlikely end. The town accepts, because it understands misfortunes and keeps quiet, but Lea Russo doesn't. Lea, who is a lawyer, has a husband, two daughters and a busy life, has always been fascinated by Vittoria. She doesn't want to settle for what she has always had before her eyes. She wants to understand how Vittoria died, and who she really was. What emerges from the woman, from her unsuspected past, pushes Lea Russo along a path that is difficult to advance on, and from which it is impossible to go back. Here she discovers the evanescence of identity, hers and that of everyone. Here she discovers, without being able to count them, how many faces there are of violence. A dark story of characters, an investigation into an unusual province, a portrait of women in constant mutation. In Chi dice e chi tace nothing ever remains still, the passions, the anxieties, the truths and the enigmas, the silences of the present and the din of the past: everything is always moving, everything can always change.
Chiara Valerio is a writer, editorial curator, artistic director and radio host. She has written the story of two films, Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti and La Tenerezza by Gianni Amelio, as well as 15 works of fiction and theatrical performances.
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