*received for free from netgalley for honest review* very different book lmao, more of a 3.5 but bumping up to 4 for being original

The story of a life told (mostly) in the course of one long meandering phone call between a emotionally numbed, bitter (with cause!) new widow and a drunk, caring Vet. I loved the characterization in the novel, liked the details tat came with the slowness of carefully peeling an onion, and the sense that old wounds can be papered over but eventually fester and explode. the plot twists and resolution felt a little tired and predictable, but I enjoyed spending spending time with Nives.

Nives by Sacha Naspini is a brilliant example of being a masterful storyteller. In just over 3 1/2 hours this author takes you on a journey filled with regrets, lost love, feelings of abandonment, deep seated anger, hilarious miscommunications, shocking secrets and a most satisfying end. All these emotions are communicated and felt during a 3 hour telephone call.

Nives is a widow after 50 years of marriage. She takes in her favorite hen to help with her loneliness. When the hen becomes frozen after watching a Tide commercial Nives has to call the local vet (and town drunk) for help.

Perfectly performed by narrator Lesa Lockford
We soon realize Nives and the vet have a past that they both have avoided confronting each other about and dealing with on their own. As secrets about children, marriage, and the town
gigolo are revealed we get a front row seat to pure entertainment filled with laughter and sorrow. Do yourself a favor and rush to get this audiobook before the chickens come home to roost.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher Dreamscape Media via #Netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

This short novel should be made into a movie or mini series. One small village full of big characters, unrequited love, disappointment, simmering revenge, bitterness and hypotheses. Sometimes chilling, sometimes hilarious - what a night of a phone call and all ending in an unexpected twist. Bizarre, unsettling and hilarious.

A masterful performance of a tightly crafted novella. Clarissa Botsford gives an English language audience a powerful rendering of Sacha Naspini’s dramatic conversation between a new widow and her former lover. A lifetime of secrets and buried passions is revealed. Narrator, Lesa Lockford, conveys the intensity and emotion on both sides of the discussion. I could absolutely see this one playing out on the stage.

Thank you to Sacha Naspini, Clarissa Botsford, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review

I listened to the audio version of this novella. I liked it. It was a little weird, but that was its charm. This is not the type of book I usually read, but I enjoy something different every now and then, and this was certainly different.
After the protagonist's husband dies in bizarre, gruesome, and strangely hilarious circumstances; she does not cry or mourn. She brings on of her farm chickens inside to keep her company and discovers the chicken is all the company she really needs. When the chicken falls ill, a night time phone call to the vet turns into a tell-all trip through this woman's life.
This story is a satire. If it weren't, her life story would be utterly pathetic. Instead, it is oddly amusing.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was wonderfully narrated. The structure of the novel is a bit unusual. The blurb does a good job of describing the set up, but it took a good bit to get to the phone call, which is the meat of the novel. The occasional reference back to the hen and the call reminds the reader of the circumstances. But, mostly, this is a long overdue conversation between two people with a shared history which, ultimately, offers catharsis for the main character.

When Nives found her husband dead in the pigpen, she could not shed a tear. She just grabbed her shotgun, shot the hog between the eyes, and sold off the meat. Though truly unmoored, she found she could still not cry at his funeral and showed nothing but anger when her daughter suggested she might not be able to take care of the farm by herself and should think about moving.

When she could not sleep alone, Nives knew a doctor would have loaded her up with pills, so she took care of this her own way too. She went out to the chicken coop, grabbed her favorite hen, Giacomina, and tucks her in bed beside her. She slept like a baby from then on and Giacomina remained in the house. Her mother had done the same with cricket, so the hen didn’t seem that odd to Nives but she worried at the thought that she had given everything to a husband she could easily replace with a chicken.

When the chicken became paralyzed, Nives called the vet in anguish.

Beware! STOP READING HERE! That is the last point anyone should have to read in this book. Your innocence is still intact. Nives is still a kindly, if somewhat eccentric old lady. If you keep going, do so at your own risk. I did, and I will never be the same.

What follows is a very long conversation between Nives and the town veterinarian that goes in detail into their lives and the lives of their “loved ones” for the past 40 or so years. It is not pretty. In fact, it is the ugliest story I have ever read in my life. I normally save 1-star ratings for those books so awful I could not finish them. I even give those 2 stars if I can find something redeeming in them. This book blindsided me with that quirky intro and then I just could not look away because it was all so horrifying.

Nives is not a character you want to get to know better. No one in this book is a character you want to know better. That 100-page conversation is crass, vile, and depraved. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This book is the worst piece of garbage I have ever read and I hope it keeps that honor as long as I live. If you have to touch this book, use rubber gloves, and for your sake DO NOT READ IT!!!

I thank NetGalley (sort of) for providing me with this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first audiobook I've ever listened to and it was a wonderful discovery. We meet Nives, a Tuscan woman who has just been widowed, but feels an absence of emotion. After the funeral, after her daughter and grandchildren have left, though, she realizes that she is lonely.

During her soliloquies, we learn that Nives has a tough exterior, a woman strong in both spirit and limb, one who has helped run a farm, raise a daughter, and run a household.

In her loneliness, she becomes attached to one of her hens, the one she has named Giacomina. This hen has a complacent manner, despite struggling with a bad foot, and Nives finds her endearing. Her sudden loneliness has caused Nives to examine her life, and this new habit of spending time in a company of a hen has Nives worried about herself, wondering why this hen is enough company to replace her husband.

One evening, when Nives is watching TV with her avian pet beside her, she notices that Giacomina has been put in a trance. Or something like that. She cannot wake this bird up. Panicked, she feels that she has no choice but to make a late night call to the town's vet.

At first, their conversation is comic. Loriano Bottai, the vet, has the attitude that perhaps Nives has lost her mind a little, calling him at night over a possibly hypnotized hen, and he tries to end the call, but never finds a graceful way of doing so. Meanwhile, the conversation has moved away from Giacomina, to things that happened long ago in their town, and then to them.

I got the feeling that their Tuscany was a small village where everyone knew everyone, and fascinated that in the beginning of this conversation, I would never have guessed how well Nives and the vet had known each other. In fact, they share a secret. During this phone call that spans almost all of this novel, Nives dives into the past, sharing all her pain, her unrequited love and her anger. This a riveting conversation with several twists, as Nives shares some startling facts.

On the death of her husband, Nives is looking back on her life with him, pondering the meaning of that life, what it's all been about. In the end, this venting has been so cathartic that Nives feels suddenly blessed and happy for the first time in her life.

And sometime during all this chatter, Giacomina has woken up, gotten off the couch, and gone searching for food. (I loved that metaphor).

This was an profound story, beautifully narrated by Lesa Lockford. Many thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media, LLC for this rich experience.