How does a book has everything and nothing at the same time? And once again, it laments how much Ginzburg's writing is quite something else, and how her stories are all different from the other, but the one constant that makes me still look forward to her other works - is in the way she writes about people. And that's something that takes immense talent to write something so straightforward but also carries so much heart and soul.

Family and Borghesia - two short novellas compiled in this one edition, in which is at the core is a sordid family affair. Whilst one handles families that are found through friendships and past relationships, the other handles a family affair and the presence of animals within one. What makes them similar is how both families seemed quite uncoventional but can also be observed in any other regular family that you know of. Its a show on how every family has their own secrets and how no one is ever perfect.

In Family, Ginzburg focused more on the flaws of humans and complexity and dynamics of different relationships. Its in the everyday, of life and death, and in the mundane daily lives and stupid mistakes. I didn't bawl my eyes out from this story but I was left feeling empty and hollow at the end of the book. The relationship of Carmine and Ivana, two people who had once been together but now are friends, in their mid 30s navigating life. Its life and death and more. And I get why the novella was named as such. Sometimes, families does not necessarily have to be tied by blood, its also formed by ties of the people around that cares about you.

In Borghesia, it takes a lighter tone than Family, but has the same essence that Ginzburg wants to portray. The complex family dynamics and adding animals in the equation makes it quite entertaining to say the least. I love the question of unhapiness in here and how there is a way to avoid them. And at the end, there's no life if there is none bit of unhapiness involved.

At the end, Ginzburg has sealed a place in my heart. Her writing is simple and does not have the complex proses if we are comparing with Ferrante, but there is a constant in her works. She knows how to bring out the emotions of the mundane, the normal everyday lives of normal people and turning them into a spotlight of their own. Even flawed, messy and complicated some relationships can be, Ginzburg shows what its like to be just that - human.

4🌟 overall for this gem.