Kobylianska demythologized the prevailing notions about the idealized woman by showing that there was little romantic purity in village women’s lives.

… with any luck she’ll win a helicopter in a crossword competition…

My suspended disbelief was losing its elasticity…

Research brings her nearer and nearer the traumas that prompted the hoarding

But this is Italy after all, and it becomes as easy for the reader to succumb to the enchantment as it does for the characters.