"next life" Mariapia Velada (Einaudi). Intervention by Elizabeth Liguori 
If being an ugly woman, these days, equivalent to a conviction, be women and still represents just a responsibility. Mariapia Velada, Vicenza teacher of literature, a degree in philosophy and theology, a novice at 50 years old, it feels all the responsibility. You guess from the themes that way. By winning one of the few still authentic literary festival (Premio Calvino), the Velada gives us a history of training positively archaic. That's an ugly woman, in fact.
It is not easy to write about ugliness of 2011. The ugliness does not exist anymore. It is no longer visible, it is not recognizable. It does not affect anyone. At the ugliness viewing angles are not offered or study, as well as for those who are bad is not available at any point of view to narrate the world. Rebecca, in fact, the protagonist of "The next life" is a girl so bad as to be indescribable. A point of loneliness indistinct through the gradual revelation of its existence and the mysteries that surround it, becomes an identity strong.
In reality, the ugliness of Rebecca is one of the themes of the novel. This horror aesthetic is both a cause and consequence, is the pretext for telling silences cruel, harmful misunderstandings, defects family, malicious gossip, small perversions to which the province can allocate asphyxiation cosmic echo. The real theme of the novel is bad in general. Where it comes from, how it grows, where it leads. The beautiful mother of the birth of his daughter Rebecca into a state of mourning depression. Indulges in un'attonita repugnance which originated as the ancient secret, choosing not to take no further relationship with her daughter, nor with the wonderful husband, or with the outside world. The cause of the silent cry of this woman is the only node that the reader will have to dissolve.
the side of Rebecca, telling her what you want to be granted and what not, which is reserved for the corner of the world, there are only a few, very successful minor characters. The waitress, the fat friend, the teacher of piano. Everywhere: ghosts and perfumes.
Perfumes, yes, because what can not be seen, can be smelled. Even love. The future. This is why not a secondary character in this narrative is the debut river. Its smell, that of its algae, the context in which its banks are located, and the people who live beyond the shores of aldiquà, and that the river itself differs in different individuals, in various forms of thought. That river tells, with a well-kept and visionary style, the province, its evils, its beauty opaque. The river takes and returns and, like any skilled storyteller, manages to be the guardian and an accomplice, sedentary traveler. A novel with the scents and atmosphere of the early twentieth century, of this Velada then, that goes right into the heart of modernity with great dignity, decency and covertly noir atmosphere. A debut that, like real life, most of real life, do not abandon themselves to the luxury of assured a happy ending, but celebrating the romantic epic, perhaps lesser, but still true.
