A Letter to a Child Never Born by Oriana Fallaci (1975)

Oriana Fallaci (Florence, 1929 to 2006) was a highly regarded political journalist and war correspondent for leading Italian journals as well as an essayist and multi-awarded novelist.  During W W Two she was a partisian.   Controversy surrounded her the ought her life for her outspoken views.  She feared no one.

 A Letter to a Child Never Born (1976, translated by John Shepley) is my introduction to the work of Oriana Fallaci.  This novella length work is in fact what the titles indicates.  It is a long letter to a child a woman carried for three months and lost in a miscarriage.  The woman, the letter is a long interior monologue, is almost a replication of the thoughts of everyone pregnant with a half dreamed for half dreaded baby.  The narrator has a very nihilistic out look on life. A lot of space is devoted to the development of the foetus.  There are serious ruminations on the morality of abortion.  She tells her unborn child that no matter what revolutions take place someone will always be washing someone else's dirty underwear.  In fact she says this several times.

This is a very philosophical more than a bit bitter work.  I am glad I read it.   It is not for everyone.

In the interest of full disclosure I was given a free copy of this book by the publisher.