'Midwife to the dying'

Michela Murgia, Italian author[Photo provided to China Daily]

But when Bonaria asked to be left alone with the old man, he grabbed her wrist and told her hoarsely how his sons had planned to get rid of him this way.

Bonaria stormed out of the room and threw the most vicious curse she knew at the family.

"You said he couldn't speak. For the monstrous lie you told me, your children, born and unborn, shall never die in peace," the novel has her as telling the sons, before leaving that house. "Feed him (the old father), and if he starves, you shall never fall asleep in life."

"Our education and society should aim to protect the weak," Murgia says. "If we cannot do that, we are going in the wrong direction."

Following a Sardinian tradition, Murgia was given away to her adoptive family at age 18, as a fillus de anima, their "soul child". Interestingly, in her novel, the other main character, Maria Listru, is also the "soul child" of Bonaria.

Murgia says her fiction is to some extent based on personal accounts of her relatives and friends. Though born in the 1970s, the writer set her story in the '50s as she grew up with her grandparents' tales and "mentally lived in the old times" of rural Sardinia.

Despite being an atheist, the politically active novelist who frequently speaks on women's rights holds a balanced view on secular laws.

"Italy is putting too much emphasis on efficiency, making standards accordingly," Murgia says, adding that laws should be made taking into consideration human factors such as faith.

The novel won Murgia several awards in Italy, including the prestigious Premio Campiello.

Murgia says her book sold unexpectedly well in Argentina. The title means "multiple orgasms" in local Spanish.

Contact the writer at chenmengwei@chinadaily.com.cn