The Intimate Life of Our Ancestors: Explanatory Note for My Cousin Lauretta, Who Would Like to Believe She Was Born as a Result of Parthenogenesis: [novel] / Bianca Pitzorno; Translated from Italian — M.: Alpina Publisher, 2024. — 640 pages. 37-year-old Ada Bertrand, a lecturer in ancient Greek literature at the University of Bologna and formerly a rebel and hippie, after a vivid erotic encounter with a stranger at a scientific conference in Cambridge, forgets her usual rationality and rediscovers the complicated history of her family. She begins to dream of her distant ancestors, minor nobles who lived in Sardinia, and in waking life communicates with the elder family members. Ada uncovers many family secrets: love intrigues, tragedies, betrayals, secret births, and bastards — everything that respectable families do not usually talk about. This changes her views on life and relationships forever. At the same time, dramatic changes take place in her own life, and Ada better understands herself. Bianca Pitzorno skillfully weaves times and genres: family saga and psychological prose, magical realism and sentimental tale, the color of Italy from the 16th and 19th centuries and modern times.