Cosima

The story she never wanted to tell. The truth she could not suppress.

Grazia Deledda's autobiographical novel is her most intimate and revealing work—a portrait of the artist as a young woman, fighting for her voice in a world that wanted her silent.

Cosima is a girl growing up in Nuoro, Sardinia, in the late nineteenth century. She is brilliant, rebellious, and trapped.

Her family is poor. Her father is gentle but impractical.

Her mother is exhausted and bitter. And Cosima wants only one thing: to write.

But in her world, girls do not become writers. They marry, bear children, and keep their thoughts to themselves.

Cosima refuses. She steals time to read.

She hides her manuscripts. She falls in love with the wrong men.

And slowly, painfully, she begins to understand that her greatest gift—her voice—is also her greatest burden. The novel follows her from childhood to young womanhood, culminating in the moment she finally decides to leave Sardinia and claim her destiny.

This is Deledda at her most raw and confessional: a novel about poverty, ambition, and the courage required to become oneself. Cosima is a gift to every young woman who has ever been told to be quiet.

• Deledda's last completed novel, published posthumously in 1937

• A thinly veiled autobiography, revealing the struggles she faced as a female writer in rural Sardinia

• Essential reading for anyone interested in Deledda's life, as well as the broader history of women's literature

Formats and delivery

• Paperback & Hardcover: Beautifully designed print editions presenting the complete, unabridged text made to last.

• Ebook: DRM-free EPUB compatible with Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, and all major e-readers.

• Audiobook: Professionally narrated, complete and unabridged, available on all major audiobook platforms.

A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ears or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that the hardest story to tell is your own.

About the Author

Grazia Deledda (1871–1936) was an Italian novelist and poet, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1926, only the second woman (after Selma Lagerlöf) to receive the honor. Born in Nuoro, Sardinia, into a middle-class family, she was largely self-taught, forbidden from attending university because of her gender.

She began writing stories at thirteen and published her first novel at seventeen. Cosima was published posthumously in 1937, a year after her death.

The novel is explicitly autobiographical: the title character shares Deledda's own birth name (Grazia Cosima Deledda), and the events closely mirror her early life in Nuoro. It stands as a companion to her earlier autobiographical writings and offers invaluable insight into the experiences that shaped her literary vision.

Her other major works include Elias Portolu (1903), Ashes (1904), The Mother(1920), and Reeds in the Wind (1913). She died in Rome in 1936.