Malafemmena

by Louisa Ermelino

Overview

Louisa Ermelino's stories follow women living dangerously at home and abroad, whether in Italian-American neighborhoods or in the countries—India, Turkey, Afghanistan—where they seek escape. At home, they break ancient Italian taboos and fall victim to mobsters. Overseas, they smoke opium-laced hashish and sleep with strange men. Ermelino's voice is boisterous and endearingly blunt.

“There is lyricism in the language of Ms. Ermelino’s splendid collection that lulls us, line after seductive line, from the mundane to the menacing. Malafemmena is the work of a bold and original writer.”
—Gay Talese

"Written with generosity, curiosity, and a great deal of sharp wit.... Will speak to anyone who's found themselves gloriously stranded in a foreign land...or bemused by the strange rituals of their own tribe."
—Hanya Yanagihara

“What Louisa Ermelino knows about the heart could fill a book and has. The unadorned authenticity of her prose is so powerful, it gave me whiplash. I read Malafemmena in one sitting and wanted more, more, more. The writer's a genius, or an alchemist, or maybe both.”
—Patricia Volk, author of Stuffed and Shocked

“Louisa Ermelino is a gorgeous writer and master storyteller. Imagine a cross between Maugham and The Sopranos. She captures the madness, comedy, violence, and superstition of domestic life in NYC’s Little Italy, but also takes us all over the world—Jakarta, India, Turkey—where her characters stumble in and out of heartbreak and trouble. This book is irresistible. I loved it.”
—Delia Ephron


Louisa Ermelino is the author of three previous novels: Joey Dee Gets Wise (Kensington, 2004), The Black Madonna (Simon & Schuster, reprint, 2013), and The Sisters Mallone (Simon & Schuster, reprint, 2013). She is Vice President and Reviews Director at Publishers Weekly in New York City.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941411292
Publisher:	Sarabande Books
Publication date:	08/09/2016
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Louisa Ermelino is the author of three novels: Joey Dee Gets Wise, The Black Madonna, and The Sisters Mallone. She is currently the Reviews Director at Publishers Weekly in New York City.

Table of Contents

Where It Belongs
Sister-in-Law
Mother Love
Marguerite
Six and Five
James Dean and Me
Malafemmina
Louise Ciarelli
The Ménage
The Baby
Death Becomes Her
A Smuggling Case
The Cellphone You Have Called
Fish Heads
The Child in the Sun
Sudder Street

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/23/2016
Ermelino (The Black Madonna), reviews director at PW, offers a collection of arresting short stories that call to mind the work of Lucia Berlin in their sparse realism and humor, as well as their fine attention to the often-harsh details of women’s lives. “Where It Belongs,” in which old-world Italian traditions surrounding childbirth and death frame a stark portrait of a young woman’s life rocked by the violence of men, is a fitting opening story for a volume titled after the popular Italian song that speaks of a woman loved, hated, and regarded as less than virtuous. In the haunting “Six and Five,” Santino marries because he wants “the good things in life” and to have sex “regular,” but the girl isn’t from the neighborhood, and just enough is revealed to let us know that Santino’s choice is a disappointment to him. In “The Baby,” a decades-spanning story involving Robin and Christina, a pair of close friends, there’s a pregnancy, a sojourn in countries where their foreignness is palpable, and the sense that there is often a truth in memory, and in the telling of stories, that feels truer than what happened. Birth and death, love and friendship, drugs and violence, home and abroad: the stories’ themes are elemental and affecting, lingering in the mind like parables or myths sketching something vital, sad, and true. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"A collection of arresting short stories that call to mind the work of Lucia Berlin in their sparse realism and humor, as well as their fine attention to the often-harsh details of women’s lives. . . . Birth and death, love and friendship, drugs and violence, home and abroad: the stories’ themes are elemental and affecting, lingering in the mind like parables or myths sketching something vital, sad, and true." 
—Publishers Weekly starred review


"Capturing an era, the specific locale, and the ethnic force of these people, Ermelino provides a glimpse into another time and place with a touch of magical realism. . . . "
—School Library Journal    


“Edgy short stories about women in trouble abroad and at home. . . The characters in Ermelino’s 16 quick stories get around. They crack jokes, take opium, have ill-considered assignations, and are lucky to get out alive (some don’t). There are a lot of great lines and a few truly timeless questions.” 
—Kirkus Reviews


“Admit it, you’ve always fantasized about being tough and adventurous, about crossing swords with the Mafia or sleeping with strangers and smoking opium-laced hashish. . . . Ermelino takes you there with strong-willed female characters circling through New York’s Italian American neighborhoods and far-off India and Afghanistan.”
—Library Journal


“Many of Ermelino's short tales hinge on recollections that evolve into deeper connections and realities. . . . Spanning perception, continents, and time, Ermelino's 16 tales stealthily explore her characters' unwieldy predicaments and conflicting desires.”
—Booklist


“Borrowing its title from an Italian song (loose translation: “Evil Woman”), this striking collection features women struggling with love, childbirth, betrayal, violence, dislocation.”
—People Magazine, "People Picks: The Best New Books"


“An accolade from acclaimed journalist and novelist Gay Talese goes a long way, and Louisa Ermelino’s collection of short stories, which center around women living life in the proverbial fast lane at home and abroad, is worthy of the endorsement, and will leave you feeling inspired by their energy and lust for adventure.”
—InStyle online, “7 Page-Turning Books You Should Read in August 2016”


“Though Louisa Ermelino’s collection of short stories, Malafemmena, is short—16 stories amount to fewer than 160 pages—it is epic in its scope, spanning continents and cultures, time and space to bring to life a series of nuanced and fascinating female characters.”
—Shelf Awareness


"Sharp and brisk."
—The Book Reporter


“Louisa Ermelino’s impressive short story collection Malafemmena is filled with fascinating stories of women facing dilemmas.”
—Largehearted Boy


“You’re in good hands with Louisa Ermelino….Most delightedly, several dark-shaded tales are not plainspoken as much as they are very natural, akin to episodes out of Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron.” But those mini fables can take place on Staten Island or Greenwich Village, and their twists help to impart flavors that are simultaneously very specific, but also universal.”
—LEO Weekly


“There is lyricism in the language of Ms. Ermelino’s splendid collection that lulls us, line after seductive line, from the mundane to the menacing. Malafemmena is the work of a bold and original writer.”
—Gary Talese


“Written with generosity, curiosity, and a great deal of sharp wit. . . . Will speak to anyone who’s found themselves gloriously stranded in a foreign land. . . . or bemused by the strange rituals of their own tribe.”
—Hanya Yanagihara


“What Louisa Ermelino knows about the heart could fill a book and has. The unadorned authenticity of her prose is so powerful, it gave me whiplash. I read Malafemmena in one sitting and wanted more, more, more. The writer’s a genius, or an alchemist, or maybe both.”
—Patricia Volk, author of Stuffed and Shocked


“Louisa Ermelino is a gorgeous writer and master storyteller. Imagine a cross between Maugham and The Sopranos. She captures the madness, comedy, violence, and superstition of domestic life in NYC’s Little Italy, but also takes us all over the world—Jakarta, India, Turkey—where her characters stumble in and out of heartbreak and trouble. This book is irresistible. I loved it.”
—Delia Ephron

From the Publisher

08/01/2016
"Malafemmena" is the title of an Italian song referring to an evil woman, one who lures others into a web of deceit. Ermelino, director of reviews at Publishers Weekly, offers a collection of stories involving risky situations far and wide. In the titular story, a beautiful, mysterious woman picks up a vulnerable man at an Italian wedding in Queens, NY. In the blink of an eye she sets him up as an accessory to murder. "Mother Love" tells of the peculiar relationship between a son and his mother—people in their neighborhood are convinced that she is a witch. In perhaps the most highly absurdist tale in this collection, a woman who is crossing the Afghan border believes she is traveling with James Dean, the long-dead American actor. Throughout the book, Ermelino keeps readers lingering on the edge of fantasy and reality. VERDICT Written in a style comparable to that of Margaret Atwood, each scenario is so thought-provoking, so taut, and so dizzying that a pause between stories is required just to catch one's breath. Open-minded readers with a sense of adventure will want to take a look. [See Prepub Alert, 2/21/16.]—Susanne Wells, Indianapolis P.L.

Library Journal

2016-05-05
Edgy short stories about women in trouble abroad and at home from Ermelino (Joey Dee Gets Wise, 2015), the Reviews Director at Publishers Weekly. "So there I was in Australia, in Sydney, working in a pub that recreated the Tyrolean Alps. I wore an appropriately humiliating costume and pink suede clogs…." "The ship ultimately left us, not in Singapore but on a tiny island off Malaysia that had never seen a tourist…." "Robin and Christina had a plan to meet in Le Havre and go on to Paris. In the flea market there they would buy backpacks, or as Robin, having been to Europe before, called them, rucksacks, and they would hitchhike, or as Robin called it, auto-stop, across Europe." The characters in Ermelino's 16 quick stories get around. They crack jokes, take opium, have ill-considered assignations, and are lucky to get out alive (some don't). There are a lot of great lines and a few truly timeless questions ("Is Nicole Kidman wearing Zac Posen, and did she really buy her lasagna pan at Williams-Sonoma?" "They have room service in the Howard Johnson Motor Inn on Forty-Third Street?"), but it all goes by a little too quickly. Characters and situations are whisked away before we can really understand or get involved with them, and even very sad situations are presented with little emotion. Some of the stories are clearly more conceptual than narrative — "James Dean and Me," for example, is an extended surrealist joke set on the Afghan border, which the narrator is trying to cross with her deceased movie-star friend. "Fish Heads" is a sketch about eating fish heads. "Where It Belongs" is a dark Italian folk tale-ish type thing set in Brooklyn. Too cool for some readers; just right for others.

Kirkus Reviews