Swiss writer Michelle Steinbeck made a splash with her debut novel ‘My Father Was a Man on Land and a Whale in the Water’ (it was selected as Best Book of the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2019). Her latest (translated by Jen Calleja) begins with a young woman, Fila, picking up a phone in her deceased grandmother’s home. A voice on the other end of the line tells Fila that her long estranged mother is dead. The voice also tells her that, no matter what anyone says, her mother was murdered. After collecting her mother’s ashes, Fila then sets about retracing the life of her mother – aka “Favorita” – while also seeking to discover how she met her demise. What follows is less a feminist revenge tale, and more a feminist fantasia as Fila embarks upon a cross-country odyssey through Italy; a journey that is in turn visceral, surreal and deeply intellectual. Her adventures encompass a bold, uncompromising exploration of identity, lineage and the ghosts of Italian history – all wrapped in a narrative that feels like a modern folk tale. “Men murder us because no one stops them,” Fila says at one point. She also makes explicit the links between misogyny and fascism (“The same old soup of resentment.”). And as Fila navigates a world of eccentric characters, shifting realities and patriarchal structures, Steinbeck doesn’t just tell a story; she builds an atmosphere of unease in a work that is as haunting as it is vibrant. ‘Favorita’ is wild of heart with plenty of sharp edges to boot. RM

Published by Faber