In Farthest Seas

A breathtakingly beautiful novel about the first 4 years and last 4 months of a great love, by a “lacerating, luminous” Italian author (Jhumpa Lahiri, author of Interpreter of Maladies)

Perfect for fans of short, razor-sharp modern literary classics like Annie Ernaux and Joan Didion’s A Year of Magical Thinking

A starkly beautiful blend of novel, memoir and elegy, In Farthest Seas tells the story of a complex, life-long love through brief, startling moments of epiphany. Divided into 2 sections, the book focuses on the first 4 years and final 4 months of Lalla Romano’s relationship with her husband, Innocenzo Monti.

Beginning with the couple’s meeting in Cuneo, Italy, Romano recounts their early attraction and burgeoning connection that developed on hikes in the surrounding Alps. Snapshots of conversation about music and painting reveal depths that come to represent the essence of their relationship, as the section builds to a close with their wedding and arrival at their first home together.

The subtle note of elegy that sounds throughout the 1st section comes to the fore in the 2nd, a sharply poignant account of Innocenzo’s decline and death. Romano’s prose builds musical leitmotifs from the themes of love and death, braiding the ending of their relationship with its beginning, building to a quietly powerful and startlingly private symphony.

An intensely moving depiction of grief, In Farthest Seas is perhaps the greatest work by a rediscovered Italian master, who’s been compared to Natalia Ginzburg and Cesare Pavese.

A sharply beautiful and moving masterpiece about love and death by the classic Italian author of A Silence Shared

Upon the death of her husband, Innocenzo Monti, Lalla Romano sought to distil the essence of their long life together. The result was In Farthest Seas: a piercingly intimate retelling of the first four years and final four months of their relationship, built from shard-like moments of connection and revelation.

With precise artistry, Romano braids together seemingly minor details - the expressiveness of Innocenzo's hands, the beauty of his face in sleep, a fleeting instance of pallor - that come to reveal the barest truths of life and death. Unsparing yet tender, minimal yet monumental, In Farthest Seas is a startlingly moving elegy for a great love by a vital Italian writer.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Brian Robert Moore

Lalla Romano (1906-2001) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and visual artist. Initially more active as a painter, from the 1940s Romano turned increasingly to writing, publishing her first poetry collection in 1941. During the Second World War she returned to her home province of Cuneo and became involved with the partisans. Her first novel, Maria, was published in 1953, and she went on to become one of Italy's most renowned writers, earning the Pavese Prize and the Strega Prize before her death at the age of 94. Her novel A Silence Shared, in Brian Robert Moore's translation, is also available from Pushkin Press.

• | Author: Lalla Romano, Brian Robert Moore
• | Publisher: Pushkin Press
• | Publication Date: Sep 11, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language: eng
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781805332350
• | ISBN-10: 180533235X