Al filo del mediodía

First published in 1969 and hitherto unpublished in Spanish, Al filo del mediodía recounts the psychoanalytic experience lived by the author of The Art of Pleasure as a consequence of a period of depression that led to a suicide attempt. Through conversations with her doctor -with whom she will end up establishing an intimate and passionate relationship-, Goliarda Sapienza lucidly reconstructs her fascinating life journey: from the abandonment of the family home, the journey through third-rate pensions, the initiation into drama, even the persecution by fascism, the madness of the mother, the difficulty in relations with the other sex and the overwhelming love for the filmmaker Citto Maselli ("we did not do the foolish thing to get married, nor think about it, we did pact to be together as long as the pleasure of being together lasted"). With magmatic and passionate prose, these pages describe the complex and painful process of a personal and universal awakening; they draw the parable of a deep reflection and free from any moral prejudice on the feminine condition, the discovery of fragility, restlessness, strength, fears, love and life.