First published in Italy in 1987, Distant Fathers is an extraordinary memoir from a writer with an unforgettable voice. Marina Jarre was born in Latvia to a Jewish father and an Italian mother. When her parents divorced she moved to Italy to live with her grandparents, devout, French-speaking Waldensian Protestants. Jarre (1925-2016) makes her rootlessness a major theme in the book, but her outsider perspective can't fully explain her persistent sense of alienation. The book is roughly divided into three sections: her childhood in Latvia and Italy; her adolescence amid the turbulence of Fascist Italy and World War II; and her adulthood as a writer and a mother. As the years go on, Jarre never seems to lose the childhood sense that "I never get it right... there's no harmony between me and the space around me!"
While the book is roughly chronological, it is always subject to the unusual rhythms of Jarre's mind. Wartime remembrances sometimes slip in between discussions of love and the author's passion for plays, for example, all according to an obscure logic that can resemble free association. The way Jarre shifts from subject to subject points not only to her odd way of thinking but her playfulness. Her sly sense of humor can sneak up on readers, as can her seeming unconcern for what they might think of her. Distant Fathers is remarkable because of Jarre's ability render her inner world precisely, including her lifelong sense of detachment. The book's great achievement is allowing readers fully to inhabit Jarre's fascinating, singular mind. --Hank Stephenson, the Sun magazine, manuscript reader