Title: My Stupid Intentions
Author: Bernardo Zannoni
Publisher (Italian): Selleria Editore Palermo
Publisher (eng): New York Review Books
Translator: Alex Andriesse
Year: Original Italian Edition: 2021
English version: 2023
This is the long life of a marten, told in its own words. Among forest trees, grassy hills, underground burrows, and the countryside subdued by humans, unfolds the story of an animal unlike any other. Archy is born one winter night alongside his siblings: his mother’s mate has been killed, and she must raise them alone.
In this book, animals speak, use plates for food, utensils, tables, beds, and light fires, yet their world remains a harsh and ruthless struggle for survival, just as nature itself is. They are driven by need and instinct, the strongest rules, and the loser must fend for themselves. It is precisely by sensing her son's weakness that the mother trades Archy for a chicken and a half. His new master is named Solomon, an old fox full of secrets who lives atop a hill. These changes will disrupt Archy's life: stolen loves, the daily cruelty of existence, the present and the past will reveal themselves to him with incredible force. Between terror and wonder, as the seasons pass relentlessly and the urge of new desires arises, mysteries and secrets will unfold beneath his paws. Archy will become less and less like an animal, a silent miracle within the forests, an anomaly. In counterpoint, within the pages of this book, there is the miracle of a compelling narrative that guides the reader into a dimension no longer human, precisely when it confronts them with the essential questions of what it means to be men and women.
My Stupid Intentions is an ambitious and transparent novel, written by a young man of only twenty-five. Like a sign of hope, of the future, for those who live by books.
The book won the Premio Campiello 2022, Premio Bagutta Opera Prima 2022, Premio Salerno Letteratura 2022, Premio Severino Cesari 2022, Premio Moncalieri 2022.
Rachel Smith told her first story in front of a live audience in 2012. From there, the threads of storytelling wound themselves around her until she became the producer, workshop host, podcast producer and international storyteller.