All That Is Left of Life - by Roberta Recchia (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An international bestseller that has sold over 200,000 copies in Italy, All That is Left of Life is a sweeping, cinematic debut, for fans of Elena Ferrante and Liz Moore, that follows three generations of the Ansaldo family in 1980s Rome as they grapple with a tragic and terrible murder.

It's August 1980 when sixteen-year-old Betta Ansaldo leaves her home with her cousin Miriam one night to attend a local bonfire in their idyllic beach town near Rome and is found dead the following morning. Miriam, traumatized, stays silent, and nobody knows or even suspects that she was in Betta's company that night. The bereft Ansaldos, struggling to cope with their grief, search for answers they cannot find. Who did Betta cross paths with on that fateful night? What was she doing there? And how could such a brutal crime happen in such a peaceful place?

As the years pass and the mystery of what happened to Betta goes unsolved, the Ansaldo family fractures under the weight of their tragedy. That is, until Miriam meets Leo, a sweet-natured young man with a dark, criminal past whose tentative romance with Miriam seems to turn her fate around. But when Leo starts to pull loose the threads of Betta's story, determined to find out what really happened, his search for the truth will either offer Miriam a way forward or risk unraveling everything.

A deeply atmospheric and unputdownable family saga, All That is Left of Life explores love, loss, and the secrets we carry.

Review Quotes

Praise for All That is Left of Life

"One of the best books I've read in 2024 . . . [All That is Left of Life] will soon become a classic."
--Elle España

"One of the most beautiful Italian novels of recent years, difficult to fit into a single genre. Roberta Recchia's book is a vast family saga spanning three generations, combining elements of thriller, romance and Bildungsroman."
--The Hollywood Reporter Roma

"Every book club will want to discuss this novel. Urgent and affecting, All That is Left of Life is an epic story that holds violence up to the light, where its isolating devastation is shown--but where tenderness and hope are revealed to be just as powerful. Recchia masterfully demonstrates how complicated it can be to survive, yet how worthwhile. This is a sharp-eyed, soft-hearted exploration of the human experience, and I will never forget it."
--Sarah Damoff, bestselling author ofThe Bright Years

About the Author

Born in Rome in 1972, Roberta Rossella Recchia lived for a time in Lille, France, where she earned a master's degree in international relations and cultures. She worked for ten years for a big company and then quit office work to devote herself to teaching. She currently teaches English in a high school in Rome. She is passionate about film and literature, especially Russian and French. She lives with her chihuahua, Claudio, in a small town on the coast of Lazio, Italy.

Antonella Lettieri is a London-based translator with over ten years of experience working in English and Italian. She was the 2023 NCW Emerging Translator Mentee for Italian and was awarded first prize in the 2023 John Dryden Translation.