Literature and Fiction · Hardback

Anita (53)

Astrid Nordang

Anita (53) is funny, modern and topical. Anita’s 15-year-old son says he wants to transition. Anita (53) herself is menopausal and experiencing violent hormone fluctuations, hot flushes and increased libido.

The day before Anita (53) is due to travel to Rome for work, her son says: ‘Mum, I want to become a woman’. He is 15 years old and determined to transition. Has he started taking hormone blockers? Anita can’t help but think about her own hormones and the menopause she’s experiencing, and about the GP who doesn’t want to prescribe her oestrogen.

She travels to Rome to live at the collective-like Norwegian Institute and write an essay about opera diva Maria Callas and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, who became lovers and confidants during the filming of Medea.

Alongside the entertaining story of Anita’s days in Rome, we are told the beautiful, painful and poetic story of Maria Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini.