C‘It’s a Sardinia that isn’t the one on a postcard nor the one told by the usual pastoral clichés. It’s one Underground Sardinia, made of ancient rituals, full silences, pagan spirituality and deep rootsAnd. In this internal landscape he moves The dinner of soulsthe new novel by Maria Laura Berlinguer (Harper&Collins): a mix of family memory, mystery and emotional archaeology, which sinks into psychogenealogy and resurfaces in narrative.
At the center, a protagonist in search of a truth that is not only historical but ancestral. Around, the restless – and at the same time consoling – presence of gods deceased, figures who return not to scare, but to guide. Like daimons, spirit guides.
Sardinia by Maria Laura Berlinguer
The title itself, The dinner of soulsevokes an authentic ritual of the Sardinian tradition: during the night of the dead, the table is set for those who are no longer here. Because it’s not true that they’re gone. I’m just “in the next room”.
Berlinguer manages to keep together narrative and research, feminine and collective, narrative lightness and spiritual rooting. The result is a novel that talks about Sardinia but also talks about us: about what we inherit, about what lives there, and about that invisible thread that unites us with our ancestors, even when we believe we have broken it.
Maria Laura Berlinguer: «I want to tell our traditions and our roots»
In the novel he moves in a Sardinia outside the usual narrative clichés.
Exactly. This is my intent. I want to tell our traditions, our history, our roots, but not in a heavy or academic way. I’m interested in doing it in a light, romantic way, with stories that can excite and make people reflect. Because for me traditions are a very strong form of Sardinian spirituality. They are our soul.
Already with the previous book, The night is my sisterhad started this journey.
Yes, absolutely. It all started from a night dream. From there a search began that has never stopped. It’s as if someone had “grabbed me by the hair”, in a mystical, non-metaphorical sense, and led me to follow this path. There is one thing I always repeat: research becomes plot. You ask yourself a question, you start digging, and that path becomes history, it becomes a novel. With the first book I began to really investigate the culture and history of Sardinia. Then there are very strong family influences which, inevitably, showed me a direction.
Maria Laura Berlinguer: «The Sardinia of my family»
In this novel there is therefore also a lot of his personal and family history (Berlinguer is the “art” nephew of Enrico Berlinguer, ed).
Yes, the inspiration comes from my family, especially my mother. It seemed right to me to talk about a Sardinia different from the stereotyped one: not only pastoral and archaic, but cultured, refined, in turmoil. In the past there have been figures – men and women – who discussed economics, art, theology, civilization. My great-grandfather, for example, was one of them: Vincenzo De Tigni, typographer, publisher, numismatist, archaeologist by passion. His collection is today at the National Archaeological Museum of Sassari and has allowed us to better understand the Nuragic era. Among all the finds, one in particular has always fascinated me, the Three Swords of PadriaNuragic votive offerings linked to the cult of water. From there the novel was born, set in that magical place.
The title is evocative. Did she choose it?
Yes, absolutely. And I defended him to the end! The dinner of souls recalls an ancient Sardinian ritual: the cult of ancestors.
In Sardinia it is believed that our dead do not disappear, but live in a parallel dimension, “in the next room”, as Saint Augustine says. On the days of the dead, the two dimensions come together and the spirits come home — not to scare, but to guide. They are daimons, good spirits who accompany the living on their way. It’s a wonderful concept: death not as an end, but as a passage. Knowing that our loved ones are still there, in some way, takes away the loneliness.
«I had to do a lot of documentation»
How much documentation did you have to do to write it?
Very, very much. But I discovered that I really enjoy studying. In addition to Sardinian history and culture, I also studied psychogenealogy, a fascinating discipline. There is a book, The ancestors syndromewhich explains how family traumas, secrets and unresolved issues are passed down from generation to generation. My protagonists, in fact, are looking for a family truth, a way to free themselves from what weighs on their past.
How long did it take you to write?
Between the research and the final draft, about two years. Writing isn’t difficult for me, but revision is: you have to dig, cut, rethink. I have a very precise method: in the morning I work, in the afternoon I shut down and write. I don’t get up until I finish a chapter. It’s like opening and closing a parenthesis: if it stays open, I can’t detach. It’s a way to “channel” everything I have inside.
Maria Laura Berlinguer: «My grandmother wrote novels»
Do women have an important role in the book?
Fundamental. I care a lot about the concept of “sisterhood”. I deeply believe in women, especially those from my land: they are the ones who preserve the memory, not only of traditions, but also of families. They pass down everything with gestures, recipes, rituals, knowledge of herbs… they are the true custodians of knowledge. And in the novel I tell exactly this, through my female characters.
Your grandmother wrote novels, right?
Yes! He wrote romance novels in installments for magazines in the ’60s and ’70s, like Bellao Confidences. She was one of the first women to support herself through writing. Perhaps it is she – or my great-grandmother – who pushes me to continue the family tradition.