The Life of Those Left Behind - by Matteo B Bianchi (Paperback)

About the Book

"In this heartbreaking yet hopeful autobiographical novel, an acclaimed Italian author who lost his partner to suicide testifies to the power of storytelling in living with grief. When in 1999 30-year-old Matteo B. Bianchi published his debut novel - a scathing portrait of the sentimental education of a gay boy from Milan in the 1980s - the timing couldn't be worse: he had just lost S., the man he'd lived with for 7 years, who one day, a few months after they broke up, decided to hang himself in their apartment. Matteo is the first to find the body, to scream without being able to scream. From that day a "dark labyrinth" ensnares him, a whirlpool of suffering, made up of contradictory feelings and constant bewilderment, which unites all the so-called survivors of the suicide of a loved one. Matteo seems to be the unhappy protagonist of a rare event as he feels a unique pain, perversely special. However, at the same time, even in the darkest days, the writer who lives in him starts taking notes. At first, they are just fragments, shards of an existence shattered into a thousand pieces, echoes of feelings alive like nerves that Matteo reports unabashedly on the page. Then, they slowly transform and, memory after memory, become a profound and intimate conversation with S. and the pain, between the temptation to let go and the desire to get back to life. Both radical and vulnerable, intimate and universal, The Life of Those Left Behind is a devastating but luminous novel about surviving the aftermath of trauma. Bianchi produces pages of excruciating beauty, recounting his journey to redemption, hope, and rebirth, and showing how, even in the depths of the most unspeakable pain, writing - his own, and also powerful works such as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - can still save"--

Book Synopsis

In this heartbreaking yet hopeful autobiographical novel, an acclaimed Italian author who lost his partner to suicide testifies to the power of storytelling in living with grief.

When 30-year-old Matteo B. Bianchi published his debut novel in 1999, the timing couldn't have been worse: he had just lost S., the man he'd lived with for 7 years, who one day, a few months after they broke up, killed himself in their apartment.

Matteo discovers the body. He feels trapped in a labyrinth of contradictory emotions and constant bewilderment, which unites all the so-called survivors of the suicide of a loved one. Yet even in his darkest hours, the writer in him starts taking notes. At first they are just fragments, shards of an existence shattered into a thousand pieces. Then they slowly transform and, memory after memory, become a profound conversation with S., caught between the temptation to let go and the desire to get back to life.

Both radical and vulnerable, intimate and universal, The Life of Those Who Remain is a devastating but luminous novel about surviving the aftermath of trauma. Bianchi produces pages of excruciating beauty, recounting his journey to redemption and rebirth, and showing how, even in the depths of the most unspeakable pain, writing--his own, and also powerful works such as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous--can still save us.

Review Quotes

"Haunting and haunted. As beautiful as it is devastating. The Life of Those Left Behind is one of those rare books to capture the brutal nature of grief and loss while soaring as a stunning work of literature. Matteo B. Bianchi serves as both traveler and guide into a terrifying underworld we never expect to enter. It's an indelible meditation on suicide, precision-tuned to break your heart." --Christopher Bollen, author of Havoc

"It may be difficult to pigeonhole Matteo Bianchi's new book, but there is no doubt that it is a brilliant exploration of an unbearable loss. Bianchi, who is a master storyteller, an insightful and sensitive memoirist, and a lyrical stylist, unites all his formidable talents in a book that thrillingly engages the reader's mind and heart. The Life of Those Left Behind (seamlessly translated by Michael F. Moore), is a unique and important contribution to the literature of grieving, loving, and living." --Peter Cameron, author of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

"With The Life of Those Left Behind, Matteo B. Bianchi, one of Italy's finest writers, attains new heights of intimacy, acuity, and eloquence. A chronicle of a loved one's suicide--what led up to it and what followed it--the novel is also a testament to human endurance and compassion, fallibility and wisdom. A necessary book." --David Leavitt, author of Shelter in Place

"I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time...Matteo [Bianchi] is unique. The Life of Those Left Behind is a masterpiece that sheds light on his entire journey. It's an invaluable gift for readers." --Paolo Cognetti, author of The Eight Mountains

About the Author

Matteo B. Bianchi, born in Milan in 1966, is an author, editor, and screenwriter. His previous novels include Generations of Love and Maria Accanto. The Life of Those Left Behind will be published in ten languages.

Michael F. Moore is the award-winning translator, most recently, of The Betrothed, by Alessandro Manzoni, hailed as a landmark literary event. His translations range from twentieth-century classics--Agostino by Alberto Moravia and The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi--to contemporary novels, including Live Bait, by Fabio Genovesi. Moore is the former chair of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund and has a PhD in Italian from New York University. For many years he was also an interpreter at the United Nations and a full-time staff member of the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations.