The book, Demand a love that demands nothing (Augh Editions), by Francesca Cerutti, graduated in Translation from the Civica Altiero Spinelli, is a collection of short stories set in Milan, written between 2020 and 2021 with different narrative techniques. It is not the work of her before her: she in fact made her debut in 2020 with a novel entitled The four of us in the worldset in Paris.
Why this change of direction?
“I felt the need to turn towards short fiction, essentially for two reasons. In fact, I felt I had a lot to tell, and by condensing everything into a single story there was the risk of there being too many irons in the fire; I then wanted to tell each of the stories I had in mind with the narrative technique that I thought would have enhanced it the most. Let’s say that writing short stories has also allowed me to experiment much more than I could with a novel taught to write keeping in mind that every single word or image I choose must be weighed with extreme care: a teaching that will undoubtedly prove very valuable even if I were to orient myself again towards broader narrative forms”.
Can you tell us how the book was born?
“The stories that make up my book were born as single stories and I didn’t immediately think of bringing them together in a collection. The idea came later, and in January 2023 I finally sent the manuscript to the Utterson publishing group. I didn’t expect anything less than a month later I was contacted by the editorial director of one of the group’s publishing houses, AUGH! Edizioni, who was enthusiastic about the manuscript and proposed publication. After the editing and revision phase, the book finally saw the light of day in June 2023.
The book takes its title from one of the stories that compose it and, in turn, the phrase “Demand a love that demands nothing” comes from a poem found by chance years ago on a sheet of paper hanging in a street in Milan, which I had struck immediately. It’s a book that is giving me a lot of personal satisfaction: I discovered that many more people shared my enthusiasm than I thought and I felt a lot of love from those closest to me.”
What do you take home from this experience?
“What I say in every presentation, and I will never tire of repeating, is that the greatest satisfaction comes when a reader tells me that he saw himself in a character, a scene or a situation described in the book, and that he felt understood. That’s where the dialogue between writer and readers really takes place, which I believe in very much.”
Demand a love that demands nothing
A woman receives an unexpected phone call from the man she has been in love with for years, without ever having had the courage to declare herself. Two girls meet again after a long time, in the memory of the summer in which they became friends – or perhaps something more. On a winter afternoon the same poem strikes a chord with a woman and a man. On the second date with a girl he met online, a boy is suffocated by the feeling of being a second best for her. A man celebrates his thirtieth birthday with his best friend and understands that over the years they have held their respective existential seasons together. A walk in Brera becomes the spur for a young woman to close a circle with a friend she lost some time ago. A writer presents a book in her old high school and sees herself reflected in a student. A girl stuck at home due to the pandemic dreams of being able to seize an opportunity that she has let slip away. Stories of requited and unrequited love, of cultivated and withered friendships, of hopes and regrets. The eight stories, written with different narrative techniques, unfold against the backdrop of a Milan that does not simply frame the lives of the characters, but becomes the protagonist, becoming a witness to their memories, desires, fears.
Francesca Cerutti
Francesca Cerutti was born in Milan in 1997. Raised in the province of Varese, she learned about her hometown during her university years. Graduated in Translation, she works as a freelance translator and post-editor. She also coordinates the literary magazine “Magma Magazine”. In 2020 she published her debut novel with Bookabook, The four of us in the world; in 2022 you participated in the short story anthologies A summer with four hands, A story a day And Postcards from Milan, all three published by L’Erudita. In the same year his story In Petersburg we will meet again he won second place at the “Pierpaolo Fadda” literary prize.
