(1986-1997)

The novel was published by Bompiani in 1989 and represented a turning point in Tondelli’s work. He had further accentuated those themes and moments of reflection already boldly present in”Biglietti agli amici” [Letters to my Friends], placing them in a wider and more complex narrative structure. As for the rest, Tondelli said, “In a certain sense, ‘Camere separate’ is the novel that underpins the three preceding ones. The first one that I wrote after having turned thirty. As Ingeborg Bachmann wrote, ‘When a man gets close to thirty years of age, nobody will stop calling him young. But he, although being unable to see any change in himself, becomes insecure and has the impression that it is no longer suitable to define him as young … He sinks down and further down.’ “.

Those critics with more acute vision were able to distinguish his changed point of view in “Camere separate”. And referred to it, on the cover flap, as an evolution ; as “the novel of his maturity”. The writer attributed part of the book’s good critical acceptance to this lucky intuition.

The author defined it as, ” … the story of a journey divided into three concentric and contiguous movements/chapters, like an operetta of environmental music. The themes of death, grief for a lost friend, religion, mother, country, travels and friendship make up the narrative texture of a complex search for inwardness and deepening”.

The French edition “Chambres Séparées”, which the writer had modified, was put out by Seuil in 1992. Pier Vittorio Tondelli considered it to be the best version of the novel and then changed the Italian edition accordingly.