Author(s): Milena Agus

Fiction

Three sisters live in three flats in an aristocratic palazzo in Cagliari's ancient Castello quarter, where rich and poor are mixed as they used to be in the old downtown quarter. The eldest, Noemi, dreams of lost splendours, while the second, Maddalena, dreams of having a child. The third, known as Countess Butterfingers 'because she's clumsy, hands made of soft cheese, and because the whole of reality hurts her weak heart, also made of soft cheese', dreams of love. Countess Butterfingers is the only one with a child, Carlino, a little livewire and a fine pianist.

Around the family and its persistent illusions there are characters who are more solid but no less fleeting, because after all it is only illusion that does not flee: the old nanny, the shady neighbour, the shepherd Elias.

Milena Agus' latest novel takes us back into that world all her own, where enchantment and disenchantment are blended without ever passing judgement or dissolving the mystery.