Description
The Bedroom
Book Summary
Considered one of the essential works of 20th-century Italian literature, The Bedroom is a narrative poem that fuses autobiography, family memory, and historical chronicle. Attilio Bertolucci weaves a lyrical tapestry where the history of his family, the Bertoluccis, is intertwined with the great events of Italy, from rural life in the Apennines to fascist violence and the Second World War. At the center, the marital bedroom stands as a symbolic space of love and restlessness. This edition offers the first complete European translation of a masterpiece that flows between dream and reality.
What is it about?
The Bedroom is a poetic autobiography that the author himself defined as a "family novel (old-fashioned style)" and "drawn in dreams." The work traces the Bertolucci family tree and the milestones of Italian history through a sophisticated construction of memory. The reader travels to Casarola and the Apennines, the ancestral home among chestnut trees, and follows the poet's life from his childhood and youth between Parma and the countryside, through his love for Ninetta, the birth of his sons Bernardo and Giuseppe—future filmmakers—the peasant life of 1908, fascist violence, and the painful Nazi battle of 1944. At the heart of this family memory stands the bedroom, an intimate space that, destined for the sin of the spouses, becomes an accomplice to a love that will never find rest on earth.
Main themes
- Family memory and poetic autobiography.
- 20th-century Italian history: fascism, the Second World War, and rural life.
- Conjugal love and the intimacy of the bedroom as a symbolic space.
- The relationship between the individual, the natural landscape (Apennines, Parma), and the ancestral home.
- Generational legacy and the transmission of experience through writing.
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at readers of narrative and contemporary poetry, lovers of great Italian literature, and the autobiographical genre. It will also interest those looking for a work that combines intimate lyricism with historical chronicle, as well as followers of Bernardo Bertolucci's cinema, who will find in these pages the family substratum of his work.
What this book offers
- An immersion into one of the summits of 20th-century Italian poetry, now accessible for the first time in a complete translation into Catalan.
- A unique perspective on the history of Italy through the personal and family memory of an exceptional poet.
- A literary experience that fuses lyricism, narrative, and reflection on the passage of time and love.
- The intimate testimony of the environment that shaped two of the great Italian filmmakers, Bernardo and Giuseppe Bertolucci.
Technical details
- Author: Attilio Bertolucci
- Publisher: Edicions Saldonar
- Language: Catalan
- Topic: Biography: literary, poetry, poetry by individual poets, modern and contemporary fiction
- Collection: General
- Binding: Other
- Publication date: March 2025
- Number of pages: 414
- Weight: 974 g
Editorial review
The Bedroom is a mature work that combines narrative ambition with poetic sensitivity. Its value lies in Bertolucci's ability to turn personal memory into a historical and emotional fresco of great significance. The publication of this first complete European translation represents a significant literary event, as it brings to the Catalan-speaking reader a fundamental text that was previously difficult to access. Reading it will be especially rewarding for those who appreciate poetry that tells stories and literature that probes the roots of being.