La famiglia degli altri

The story of a woman who decided not to conform, but chose to lose herself in order to find herself again, and built a family in which the freedom of each individual is the first rule to be respected.
Social conventions only have one purpose: to offer a safe haven when you don’t know what to do. This is how Marta sees it. At 34 years of age, she has chosen to go against the tide, to not follow society’s dictates and to build an unconventional family with her partner Antoine. What unites them is the ambitious and heartfelt project of following in the footsteps of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the open couple par excellence. Inspired by the two philosophers, Marta and Antoine believe that love is the highest form of freedom. For this very reason it should be free from constraints, and express itself in a relationship where mutual trust cancels out any form of exclusivity and translates, first and foremost, into an intense intellectual communion. Until now, Marta has been convinced of her choices. But when the sudden death of her grandmother Ada forces her to leave Paris, where she lives and works, and return to her native Padua, the foundations of her system of thought begin to shake. Soon, between greetings and polite pleasantries, Marta will find herself having to face a reality made up of secrets buried under a façade of respectability. Secrets that will also shake her few and once solid certainties. Because the truth is that there are no ideal and perfect families. Every family is imperfect in its own way. With a sharp, precise and elegant style, Elena Rui presents us with the portrait of a fragile and tenacious woman who, without chasing false illusions, tries to make the most of the existential role that suits her best. In the hands of the author, Marta’s story acquires a universal dimension and becomes a paradigm of the transformations that family models undergo over time and that we witness every day. A debut of great impact and effectiveness that marks the birth of a new intelligent and refined Italian voice.