The Lost Daughter

Reading this book felt like being punched in the gut. Leda is not a likeable character. The decisions she makes confound and astound us. But I believe this was the author's intention. She presents us with a woman whose notion of motherhood is very different to what we have been taught and what we are used to. As a young woman, Leda felt suffocated by motherhood. She felt like all aspects of her life were dictated by the needs of her daughters. She was no longer an individual but an extension of them. This book made for a disquieting read mainly because the writing is so visceral. Ferrante makes us question our preconceived notions of motherhood. We may swear, hand on heart, that we would never act like Leda but, deep down, don't we all have a selfish streak? A brilliant book but I thought that some nuanced were lost in translation. This novella is short enough for me to read it in its original Italian and I might attempt to do that in the future.