Nueve mujeres, muy distintas entre sí y que nunca se han visto antes, comparten sus historias. Natasha, su terapeuta, ha decidido reunirlas en la convicción de que las heridas empiezan a sanar cuando se rompen las cadenas del silencio.

One note before my review: there are lots of potentially triggering things discussed in this book. These women all experienced one hardship or another, which is why they are seeing a therapist. I did not find any of the descriptions vivid or detailed enough to merit any discomfort or specific trigger warnings, but I also haven't been a victim of those particular evils.

I'm not sure if it was the story or the translation, but I didn't really care for this book. There wasn't really a connecting thread between the ten women except for the tenth woman, since she was the therapist all of the other nine saw. There wasn't really a plot. There wasn't really any conflict, or growth, or anything I look for in a story.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was fiction, because it reads like a series of short autobiographies. Sadly, I couldn't connect much with any of the characters and while I found a lot of lines worth highlighting I also found my attention wandering frequently. ( )

Nove donne più una. Nove donne sono convocate dalla psicoterapeuta che hanno in comune per raccontare la loro storia e le ragioni per le quali sono andate in terapia. Sono donne diversissime fra loro: dall’attrice ormai anziana che da giovane ha fatto la vita spensierata della cicala e ora si trova a dover affrontare una difficile solitudine, a quella con un passato problematico che ha saputo, con anni di lavoro su stessa, riconquistarsi una normalità apparentemente banale e insignificante. Sono diversissime per origini, professioni, età, estrazione sociale, in tutto, ma in questi coraggiosi monologhi, tra le righe, scopriamo che per quanto diverse le loro esperienze si richiamano, e che la vera protagonista del romanzo è la femminilità.

This is a novel with life stories from 10 women in Chile which could ring true with any of the women in any country. ( )

In Santiago, Chile, ten women--nine patients and their therapist--meet. Normally the women receive individual therapy, but this time the therapist, Natasha, wants them all together in a group session. They will all talk about their lives.

They're all very different women, different backgrounds, different experiences. An elderly former actress, a nineteen-year-old computer whiz, a housekeeper, a woman from a wealthy, connected family, women who have struggled to become or remain middle class. The last story we get is Natasha's own, an immigrant with a broken and traumatic past of her own.

Yet despite the differences and the great gulfs between them, there are common threads. They find commonalities and recurring themes, experiences and struggles that link them all.

And for the American reader, not the original intended audience, it's a look at women in Chile, and how their experiences are both like and unlike our own. The women are all compelling; they do not all seem likable at first, and yet with each there is something to connect with. Chile's 20th century history, which younger readers may not have encountered before, plays a central role in the lives of these women.

I of course can't directly judge the quality of the translation, the result seems very good to me, clear and understandable without sounding like American voices are speaking. The narrator is also very good.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. ( )