Books by Adria Bernardi

Small Talk

Poetry.  Translation of Raffaello Baldini’s La nàiva, Furistír, Ciacri, (Einaudi ) from the Romagnole dialect of the poet’s Santarcangelo and from the Italian.

"Each  translation manages to create a true 'character' – a persona through which we can hear the living sound of this bustling, crowded, factually packed, local life.  In this, (Bernardi) performs with great effect the true ‘bringing-over’ task of the translator."  –   Geoffry Brock

Siren's Song

Poetry and Prose. Translation of Rinaldo Caddeo’s selected works, La lingua del camaleonte (Manni Editore, 2002), Narciso (Forum/ Quinta Generazione, 1989), Calendario di sabbia (NCE, 1997), and I mostri. Poems and prose poems that range from the Sphinx and Cleopatra to a street in Milan, from dust to black cats, from the Archaeopteryx to the Siren's Song, written with grace and wit.

"This is an articulate reflection upon the theme of form: I'm thinking about works such as Pompeii or Hiroshima, all playing with the idea of shade and calque, but also about the mournful couplets of Lightning, within the landscape of night, wild animals, fever." – Valerio Magrelli

Openwork

A novel depicting the intertwined lives of three generations of three Italian families, in which two women separated by a hundred years retell the stories in order to make a whole out of the remnants left by immigration.

“An epic tale of love, loss, and longing.  A family, riven by poverty and calamity, yet united by a craving for justice.  Bernardi’s powerful emigration tale illuminates the Italian American soul.”
-Louise DeSalvo

The Day Laid on the Altar

The interconnecting journeys of the shepherds, artists and artisans in this novel begin in a remote 16th century Apennine village, continuing through terrains of rich and poor to the Tuscan plains, and onto the household of Titian.

“This book enters you as you enter it.  You feel you are being shaped somehow as you read.  You are the grain on the threshing floor.”
-Martha Faketty, ThirdCoast

In the Gathering Woods

Time spans 400 years in these stories, the places range from from a remote Apennine mountain village to Chicago , and the characters include a solitary man making cave art, a man waiting for Minnie Minoso at a veterans' hospital, and a pre-verbal infant telling a story.

“Adria Bernardi’s characters are in love with the mysteries and quirks and strange inevitabilities of language and its power to shape memory.  Bernardi’s stories, which range from Chicago to Italy, have both strength and a lovely delicacy, and are deeply rooted in her own fascination with language.”
-Jane Hamilton

Houses with Names

The Italian Immigrants of Highwood , Illinois.   An oral history and essays of 50 Italian immigrants in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

“Gracefully written, Houses with Names adds a new chapter to Illinois history, immigration studies, and urban folklore. The stories are touching, eliciting tears and laughter, a rare accomplishment.”
-Gary R. Mormino