A review by lizzillia
The Missing Word by Concita De Gregorio
4.0
This book was sent to me by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
This book is a translation from the original Italian and is based upon a heart-breaking true story of Irina whose ex-husband disappeared with their 6 year old twin daughters. Days after taking them, he took his own life and there was no sign of the girls and Irina is still searching.
The book takes the form of letters and meditations from Irina and we see how she has dealt with the loss of her daughters. How closely the author has stuck to the original writings is not known, but the Irina in the book is not some hysterical woman, she is rational and clear in her thoughts and in the demands she makes of those who she believes failed her when the girls first disappeared. She is a woman wronged, not only by her ex-husband but also by the authorities that should have been investigating the adduction. Instead, because she was an Italian woman in Switzerland, she was treated almost with disdain. It is to these people that she clearly sets out the wrongs that they have done her and her requests.
In her writings, she describes how she lives with her grief, how she keeps her daughters alive in her thoughts and it is powerful and so heart-breaking because this is a true story and Irina is still searching for her daughters.
The title of the book is also relevant because as Irina writes, there is no word for a parent who has lost a child. There are words for those who lose husbands, wives; words for children who lose parents but not for parents who lose a child and this sense of being invisible is also explored.
A book that stays with you and makes you pray that Irina does find resolution. Thank you Netgalley and Europa Edition for allowing me to read this.
This book is a translation from the original Italian and is based upon a heart-breaking true story of Irina whose ex-husband disappeared with their 6 year old twin daughters. Days after taking them, he took his own life and there was no sign of the girls and Irina is still searching.
The book takes the form of letters and meditations from Irina and we see how she has dealt with the loss of her daughters. How closely the author has stuck to the original writings is not known, but the Irina in the book is not some hysterical woman, she is rational and clear in her thoughts and in the demands she makes of those who she believes failed her when the girls first disappeared. She is a woman wronged, not only by her ex-husband but also by the authorities that should have been investigating the adduction. Instead, because she was an Italian woman in Switzerland, she was treated almost with disdain. It is to these people that she clearly sets out the wrongs that they have done her and her requests.
In her writings, she describes how she lives with her grief, how she keeps her daughters alive in her thoughts and it is powerful and so heart-breaking because this is a true story and Irina is still searching for her daughters.
The title of the book is also relevant because as Irina writes, there is no word for a parent who has lost a child. There are words for those who lose husbands, wives; words for children who lose parents but not for parents who lose a child and this sense of being invisible is also explored.
A book that stays with you and makes you pray that Irina does find resolution. Thank you Netgalley and Europa Edition for allowing me to read this.