Italy · Literary fiction
The Woman of Rome
Adriana dreams of a home and family, but her work as an artist’s model leads her into relationships in which beauty, money and power become difficult to separate. As she becomes a prostitute, her life intersects with a student, a secret-police officer and a violent criminal in Rome under Mussolini.
Moravia approaches the capital through intimate encounters and unequal bargains. The city’s public confidence conceals fear, corruption and private vulnerability. Through Adriana, the reader enters a Rome shaped as much by the need to survive as by the desire to rise.
A profoundly realistic and compassionate story
The Atlantic Monthly, quoted by the publisher
Class; Sex; Power; Fascism; Screen adaptation; Family