Ten years after the death of Ettore Sottsass, and on the eve of the centenary of his birth, Barbara Radice dedicates her diary to him, a diary begun the day after his death, on 31 December 2007, and which she continued to write for two years.
Reconnecting a lifetime of memories with her painful story, told almost with an entomologist’s attention to detail, Barbara opens a window onto her private reflections, at times ironic, and gives us a closer glimpse of the great architect and designer. And much more besides. In a sequence that is almost cinematic, rolling before the reader are the stills from a “wonderful” life spent “always watching the world from the same side of the window.” These are the places much-loved by Ettore and Barbara: the houses in Milan, the beloved Filicudi, their friend Prema’s India, the tropics, Engadin, friends, family, objects, the everyday of a far from trivial life. The pictures accompany the story. Reaching the last page without even drawing breath, you realise that the tears and silences won’t be easily shaken off.