Join our newsletter for 10% off at the Penguin Shop

Meeting in Positano

Inspired by her own adventurous, unconventional life, actress and writer Goliarda Sapienza’s recently rediscovered novel takes the reader to the sun-drenched town of Positano in southern Italy. There, while working on a film, Goliarda encounters the captivating Erica, a beautiful widow called 'Princess' by the locals, who has been the object of much speculation. As the two women grow closer in spite of their different personalities, they gradually reveal more about their thoughts, feelings and experiences, and the ghosts from their pasts that continue to hang over them.

Writing the story of their transformative friendship thirty years later, Goliarda offers a profound reflection on love in its many forms, and opens a window onto an enchanting time and place that lingers in the mind. And this unlikely bond, forged between a leftist idealist and a traditional aristocrat, acts as a microcosm of Italy, illuminating its complex, competing impulses.

About Goliarda Sapienza

Goliarda Sapienza (1924–1996) was born in Catania, Sicily, in 1924, into an anarchist socialist family. At sixteen, she entered the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome and worked under the direction of Luchino Visconti, Alessandro Blasetti and Francesco Maselli. She is the author of several novels published during her lifetime: Lettera Aperta (1967), Il Filo Di Mezzogiorno (1969), Università di Rebibbia (1983) and Le Certezze Del Dubbio (1987). L'Arte Della Gioia is considered her masterpiece.
Learn more
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • ISBN: 9780241827109
  • Length: 256 pages
  • Price: £10.99
All editions