THE EMPIRE OF DIRT

Three generations of Italian women living under one roof might be witches or might just be trying to live their lives; point of view is everything.

During the summer of 1996, 12-year-old Valentina gets her period for the first time. Unprepared for the situation, she keeps it to herself initially, the first step in her developing awareness of her sexuality and its related power. Among many subsequent and, perhaps, surreal occurrences recounted by Valentina, the odd-looking house her family has occupied for generations also seems to begin bleeding. Referred to as “the blind house” by others in their rural, agrarian community, Valentina’s home lacks windows facing those who approach it and is the site of numerous unusual phenomena as her story unfolds. After the departure of Valentina's father for a job in Russia, the house is occupied by Valentina, her young mother (whose choices in life were circumscribed by her teenage pregnancy), and her scrupulously religious grandmother, who tends to the family’s farm. A series of plagues—closely resembling those described in Exodus—appears to descend upon the homestead and prompts Valentina’s ailing grandmother to attribute blame for what she believes to be a curse on the household. Interfering with those calculations of guilt are the secrets Valentina’s family has held for generations. As frogs, mosquitos, maggots, and boils (among other horrors) descend on the family, Valentina endeavors to make sense of her place in a world inhospitable to girls seeking freedom and within a family where secrets reign over truths. Manfredi delivers Valentina’s narrative, as translated by Oklap, in a straightforward and unapologetic tone consistent with the bravado and insecurities of adolescence.

Familial truth emerges, one way or another, but it may take a few generations before it can be seen.