Ginzburg and her husband, Leone, lived in exile in Pizzoli, Abruzzo, from 1941 to 1943. In 1943, Alba de Céspedes and Natalia Ginzberg crossed paths. After the fall of Mussolini in September 1943, the Ginzbergs must have felt safe to return to Rome to edit an anti-Fascist newspaper. But soon, the Nazis invaded. After being released from prison for her anti-fascist broadcasting, Alba and her future husband, Franco Bounou, escaped by night to Abruzzo.
As they hid, De Céspedes kept a diary. Despite the allies being in Abruzzo and pushing towards Rome, it was common to hear reports of comrades found slaughtered. “Dalla Parte Di Lei” (The Best of Husbands) (1949) came out of the diary. Jill Foulston translated it into “Her Side of the Story” (2023).
Much of the novel concerns the perceptions of men’s and women’s work. Alessandra’s husband goes into hiding to escape arrest, and she takes over his work. She hides coded messages in her bun and delivers bombs hidden under layers of peas on an old bicycle. Francesco disapproves of her actions, as does an older female comrade. Upon Francesco’s return, his comrades present Alessandra as “Signora Minelli” while relating her husband’s “famous ordeals.” Alessandra states:
“I started to suspect that the bombs I had carried weren’t real; to wonder if only the ones the men carried were dangerous.”
The novel ends in tragedy when Alessandra descends into madness and kills her father for causing the suicide of her mother. It is incorrect; however, it is understandable after all the risks she took with no appreciation and no way out.
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