★The great heroines of literature, from Emma Bovary to Anna Karenina, rebel against their unhappy fate. An unexpected book with a brilliant opening in the name of “female empowerment”.

The heroines of Western literature are mostly tragic characters. And this is not only because of the limitations of the human condition, like for their male counterparts, but also because, a mournful fate inevitably awaits them. Since they cannot aspire to be founders of lineages or war winners (statuses reserved to male figures), death seems to be the only way for them to achieve glory.

This is a cage in which are mirrored the social conventions that, for centuries, have confined women to the role of mother, wife or lover. Only in death, better if a violent one, there is a possible fulfilment for the female gender.

This book aims to retrace the stories of some of these characters, by imagining a different fate. What would have happened if at some point in their journey they had changed course and death had no longer been the inevitable conclusion?

ALESSANDRA SARCHI has lived and worked in France and the United States, but now she lives in Bologna. With a PhD in History and Art Criticism, she is a member of the jury of the Russo Pozzale literary prize. She has written several short stories published in different magazines and collective anthologies.