A friend told me to read this short, stirring novel, and I’m very happy I did.  Translated from Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri, author of Interpreter of Maladies and several other outstanding reads, Ties is the story of a marriage and the impact it has on each family member.   Twelve years after they marry, Aldo leaves his wife, Vanda, for a younger woman.  Told through the voices of Aldo, Vanda, and their two children, Starnone brilliantly illustrates how this long term affair affects everyone, even forty years later.

Ties is a very emotionally charged book.  Although there is very little action,  Domenico Starnone manages in 150 pages to put a number of ideas, feelings and symbols into his novel.