This novel is about women and trauma. Many traumas. (All the content warnings go here.)

I struggled with this a bit. I am lost on why a classical Arabic language school in Tunis is the main setting. I was frustrated about one fact that never came to light to the female narrators. But the way the story is told--the mothers' traumas and secrets coming to light (one written, one recorded), and the daughters' own traumas narrated by them as they struggle to understand their own behaviors and mental health. Only the reader is left to put this all together, as the daughters have yet to read/listen to their mothers' stories. I wonder if a second read would further bring it all together for me, as in the beginning the reader does not yet know what is coming.
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Summary
5 narrators, 2 daughters, 2 mothers, and the father. The mothers are immigrants to Italy (one from Argentina, one from Somalia) and experienced extreme traumas in their home countries. The daughters were both raised in Italy, but each has suffered her own secret traumas as well. The father narrates, but his story is more about his father, mother, and aunt/stepmother--and their traumas. Layers of trauma.

The mothers and daughters struggle to understand each other, and each wants her daughter to know why. To know of these traumas that have shaped them and their lives, and how they raised their daughters, thus shaping their daughters' lives. The mothers know nothing of their daughters' traumas, and do not consider how their daughters might be hiding things from them. ( )

This book demands a re-read from me. Because I need to admit here at the beginning of my review that this book was too erudite for me, the first time through. Not too complex or too experimental or too literary--what I mean is that this novel demanded an intellectual, humanistic and historical knowledge from me that I didn't have.

[b:Insurrecto|40237027|Insurrecto|Gina Apostol|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1530369457l/40237027._SX50_.jpg|62502835] by Gina Apostol is another novel I read recently that made me feel like my prior knowledge wasn't up to what the story demanded of me. In the case of Apostol's book, though, I could just power through, without worrying about what I was missing. I found Insurrecto to be a magnificent read in spite of my shortcomings. I was not that book's perfect reader by any means, but I still loved it.

In the case of Scego's novel, though, the historical layers are more complicated, and I feel as if the parts of the story that I didn't intuitively understand were more critical to the whole, to the point where I spent a fair amount of time looking up historical and biographical and geographical references as I read along. This necessary interruption of my reading made the novel feel somewhat mediated, and it was less powerful to me because of this feeling.

This novel was nonetheless a gorgeous reading experience, especially for its deep, liquid-y female-ness--for all the parts where the story revealed its humanity, without demanding that I know all the facts. And I'll look forward to reading it again, now that I have more of an understanding of the shape of this novel than I had the first time through. ( )