FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER LONGLISTED AND WINNER OF THE STREGA PRIZE THE HOUSE ON VIA GEMITO

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK 

“What is most thrilling about Trust is its overwhelming sense of unease... the selves we ‘make’ for ourselves and others may be the most dangerous of the stories we tell.” —Times Literary Supplement

“Compelling… One of Italy’s most accomplished novelists.” —The Guardian 

“Starnone packs a huge amount into a small compass.” —The Sunday Times 

Pietro and Teresa’s love affair is tempestuous and passionate. After yet another terrible argument, she gets an idea: they should tell each other something they’ve never told another person, something they’re too ashamed to tell anyone. In this way, Teresa thinks, they will remain intimately connected forever.

A few days after sharing their shameful secrets, they break up. Not long after, Pietro meets Nadia, falls in love, and proposes. But the shadow of the secret he confessed to Teresa haunts him, and Teresa herself periodically reappears, standing at the crossroads of every major moment in his life. Or is it he who seeks her out?

Trust asks how much we are willing to bend to show the world our best side, knowing full well that when we are at our most vulnerable, we are also at our most dangerous.

"Trust unfolds with all the tension of a thriller despite much of the action taking place in the mind of the protagonist."

Domenico Starnone was born in Naples and lives in Rome. He is the author of thirteen works of fiction, including First Execution(Europa, 2009), Ties (Europa, 2017) a Sunday Times Best Book of the Year, Trick (Europa, 2018), a Finalist for the 2018 National Book Award and the 2019 PEN Translation Prize, Trust (Europa, 2021), and The House on Via Gemito (Europa, 2023), winner of Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, the Strega. It was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024. Jhumpa Lahiri is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies. Her books include The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, The Lowland, and, most recently, In Other Words, an exploration of language and identity. She is the translator of Starnone’s Ties and Trust.