I Know Who You Are 

Original title: Io lo so chi sei

By: Gatti Bardelli A., Maggio M.

First published in Italy: Bompiani, 2017

Genere: Fiction

Overview: Luciano is a forty-year-old teacher at the University of Milan, living a life of loneliness and difficult relationships, especially with women. When the invitation to a dinner with his middle school friends arrives, the sad balance of his life resurfaces, as well as memories of a youthful love long gone. Monica, on the other hand, is a free woman who loves the pleasures of life and faces everything with joy and apparent lightness. During the day she works at the market of Benedetto Marcello, in the evening she performs in a nightclub for the fun and pleasure of opening herself to the world. Two opposite worlds, told in first person, destined to clash when chance or fate will bring these two existences to cross ways or meet again.

I Love You in all Genders of the World

Original title: Ti amo in tutti i generi del mondo

By: Vezzoli G.

First published in Italy: Giraldi editore, 2016

Genere: Novel, fiction

Overview: The book tells the story of Nina, a 21-year-old punk with a soft heart. Framed by her cousin Elena, who wants to try a period of cohabitation with her forty-year-old boyfriend, Nina, covering for her cousin, finds herself alone in the village “Harmony and Nature”.
She keeps a diary of her life in the village, which begins to change when she meets Sasha, nibling of the village owner and handyman.
At first, Sasha looks like a boy to Nina, but every time she meets him she changes her mind and is never sure if Sasha is a boy or a girl. In fact, name, clothing, attitudes, and ways of referring to themselves do not give Sasha a definite gender identity.
Intrigued and fascinated, Nina begins to scout for clues about this mysterious person. First asking Amalia, Sasha's aunt, who only tells her that “Sasha speaks about themselves in both masculine and feminine terms, and lets others do the same”.
Meanwhile, the relationship between the two gradually changes and intensifies. In the end, Sasha asks Nina not to try to guess whether s/he is a boy or a girl, but to see them just as a person, without any kind of label.

I Mix Everything

Original title: Mescolo tutto

By: Incretolli Y.

First published in Italy: Tunué, 2016

Genere: Fiction

Overview: The protagonist is Maria, a nineteen-year-old, self-harming Roman girl who decides to run away after the end of a relationship. Her escape and the ensuing new encounters are an opportunity to discover her true identity and the possibility of freeing herself from her propensity towards extremes.

Notes: Special mention for the Italo Calvino Award.

I Wanted to Go to the Forest. Life Stories for a Sociology of Transgender Experience

Original title: Io volevo andare nella foresta. Storie di vita per una sociologia dell’esperienza trans.

By: Papuli C.

First published in Italy: Mimesis, 2019

Genere: Non-fiction

Overview: The goal of the book is to give voice to those who experience the transgender condition in their bodies. “Experts” have monopolized the subject for too long. That is why the book, through a collection of life stories of transgender subjectivity, proposes a sociological reflection on the meaning that direct experience takes on for those who share their stories.

If I Was Your Girl

Original title: If I Was Your Girl

By: Russo M.

First published in Italy: Newton Compton Publishers, 2017

Genere: Romance, young adult

Overview: The sugar-coated story of a girl, Amanda Hardy, who, after transitioning, starts a new life in a new school. She would like to make new friends, but she has a secret, and to keep it, she prefers not to give people too much credit. This strategy of hers collapses the moment she falls in love with Grant. The novel covers all the steps that lead the family to accepting her condition. It includes the period of doubts, fears and strong hesitation and the years when many teenagers experience painful challenges, such as high school, love and mental health. The novel has the merit of describing, with a delicate viewpoint, the transgender experience at an age which is complex by definition, emphasizing the importance of living as authentically as possible.

Notes: Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the Young Adult Fiction category.