Out running errands, Valeria Cossati gives in to a sudden impulse - she buys a shiny black notebook. Hiding it from her husband and children, she begins to record and scrutinise her life, writing of the daily domestic routine, her children's struggles in love and minor rifts in her marriage. Gradually, the solid structure of her family life crumbles away, and Valeria discovers the dissatisfaction that has been lurking behind her devotion to her family for years.

Forbidden Notebook is a rediscovered classic of Italian literature, published here in a new translation by the celebrated Ann Goldstein and with an introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri. Written with sharp clarity and insight, it is a haunting story of domestic discontent, and of one woman's powerful reckoning with her own life.