The Shushariya

A brief about the book and let us start briefly with the personal events that led to writing the novel "Al-Shushariya". We must begin here with September 8, 1943, a difficult day for Italy and for the author: "One morning after September 8, a Hungarian person who was heading the Foreign Press Association told me that I am on the list of people to be arrested" (from Moravia to Inzo Cisiliano, p. 56). At that time, Moravia hurried to travel with his wife Elsa Morante from Rome, and they headed towards Naples, hoping to cross the front. But the train stopped near Fondi, so the couple decided to go to the Shushariya mountains to avoid bombing and arrest traps, and there they lived for eight months in a hut near Sant'Agata (which is Saint Juveimia in the novel) with other displaced persons. They were only "liberated" at the end of May 1944 when they finally managed to reach Naples, then the capital Rome after it was liberated in June. These eight months spent among the bushes left an indelible mark on Moravia's soul, and he said after several years that two events clearly changed his life: the bone fracture he sustained at the age of nine and the war. At that time, he lived in a hut with a farmer named Davide Marocco (Paride in the novel) and said that he no longer thought except about living however he could, without writing anything "because we had neither pen nor ink," while Moracco's testimony indicates that he spent most of his time writing in his notebooks. Who knows if those notebooks will ever appear. It’s possible he was writing notes about some events, people, and ideas that later crystallized into three types of writing upon his return to Rome: – Political writings like those appearing in books such as "Political Memoirs" and "Man as a Goal". "Towards 1946," a book about reaffirming confidence in the future of man. – Autobiographical writings about that experience, some of which appeared as a series of events in the novel "Al-Shushariya". Here, the author himself stated that the chorus of that novel contains only three invented characters: Chezzira, Rozetta, and Michele. It also helps us understand the way this novelist works with an integrative technique... Dar Al-Mada Publishing House. Author: Alberto Moravia. Translator: Nabil Al-Mahaini. Year of publication: 2022. Number of pages: 376.