We, the Casertas A novel

This mesmerizing 1992 novel from Venturini (Cousins), who died in 2015, traces a brilliant and unruly woman's childhood isolation, youthful adventures, and devastating heartbreak. At four years old, Chela Stradolini is regularly sent by her pregnant mother to the attic of their Buenos Aires home, where she spends much of her time when she's not roaming the property with her only friend, an owl. After her brother is born with dwarfism, he joins her in the attic and she takes care of him. By the time she's 20, everyone in her immediate family has died, and she begins an affair with the much older Luis, with whom she falls deeply in love. She's devastated when he refuses to get a divorce and commit to her, prompting her to travel, first to Chile, where she writes literary criticism and meets Pablo Neruda. She impresses the celebrated poet with a piece on his work but stops herself from falling for him, having "inoculated against love." In Italy, she's taken in by her great-aunt, who becomes her lover before her macabre return to the attic in Argentina. Full of unexpected turns and darkly haunting imagery, this gothic tale is worthy of its resurrection. Agent: Sandra Perja, Massie & McQuilkin Literary. (May)

Award-winning Venturini (1921--2015) offers a gothic story about Chela, a wealthy and intellectually curious girl growing up through an unruly and unloving childhood on a magnificent Argentinian estate in the 1920s. The years pass, and an adult Chela travels across South America and Europe and back again, having affairs with older men, befriending Pablo Neruda, and falling in with spell-casting aristocrats, but the real journey takes place within, as she lives in a world of the mind, always finding new ways to be entertained by her surroundings. Her character's trajectory as the novel heads into the 1940s, when her familial estate is appropriated by the Peronist government, illuminates the downfall of the Argentinian ruling class and their last grasp for control in a century marked by the power of the people. Chela, however, is undaunted and embarks upon more travels (including a Sicilian jaunt and a treasure hunt) and more affairs. First published in 1992 and only now translated into English, Venturini's novel remains relevant through its focus on power struggles and the will of the individual, plus its intriguing look into the occult. VERDICT A rapidly paced novel with a main character who faces a crumbling world but dances on the ashes of the relics left burning in her wake. The late Venturini, who made her English-language debut with the 2023 publication of Cousins, is a good pick for readers of fantabulism and literary historical fiction.--Meagan Shay