Her widely translated first novel- Settanta acrilco trenta lana (70% Acrylic 30% Wool) published when she was 23- was the winner of the prestigious 2011 Campiello First Novel Award and the Rapallo Opera Prima Award. Each sentence lures us further into the flies and blood-filled spirals of Di Grado’s dreamworld and, most importantly, we are willing to follow her. Despite its shortcomings, Blue Hunger makes for an interesting look at an intriguing city, and at a woman trying not to lose herself completely in its snares, and in her grief.

I answered by nodding yes and no, like a little girl being questioned by the police in the middle of the night. The narrator, who doesn't share her name but often goes by her brother's, Ruben, moves to Shanghai to fulfil the dream of her brother, who recently died.Placing an Italian woman in China adds to the sense of displacement, isolation and alienation as the protagonist mourns the death of her twin brother whose name she takes, and pursues a relationship with the elusive Xu whose own propensity for sexualised biting and ritualistic unclothing that follows the direction of reading ideograms play into the structure of the text. Non mi hanno convinta però alcuni elementi chiave come la lingua cinese, Shangai e la morte del fratello, Ruben: topoi trattati con eccessiva fretta e superficialità ma non senza motivo, anzi, semplicemente non c'è stato uno spazio adeguato per svilupparli e mostrare davvero il loro potenziale narrativo, allegorico e in generale espressivo.

Not my cup of tea, but I would recommend it to readers seeking slow-paced, character-heavy, plotless novels. You do things for other people, you suppress parts of your personality, and then no one remembers when you came into the world. Rooted in an experience of cultural limbo, Blue Hunger takes the reader on a visually stunning, taboo-demolishing journey into the depths of the psyche, from mourning to falling in lust-all in a city of potent dreams, stories, and stimulations. Una cosa la so, e cioè che mi ha tenuta incollata alle pagine perché sicuramente c'era del potenziale in queste pagine torbide, ossessive e disperate.If there’s a third major character in Blue Hunger (well, a fourth, if you count Ruben) it has to be Shanghai itself. This was a hazy yet electrifying story of an Italian woman grieving the loss of her twin brother, who moves to China and begins a toxic and intoxicating relationship with a sadistic woman. Di Grado’s emotional register mimics Garth Greenwell’s gorgeous study of sex and shame in What Belongs to You and Cleanness, in which queer bodies traverse public and private spaces.