A woman discovering herself

For a long time Dora thought that everything was under control, that everything was perfect. Marco was the love of her life and everything seemed to go smoothly, without even ripples on the surface. Yet, from the moment Marco left her three years earlier, Dora's world was shattered and she still hasn't found the awareness to really start again.

Barricaded behind a routine based on three certainties - the work as a pediatrician in a hospital in Milan, the adored grandmother Ines and her friend and confidant Cinzia - she let her private life crystallize. In the hospital, despite the visceral dislike she feels for the head physician, Dora feels useful, and this makes her feel good, even more so since Gennarino arrived, a child who has won her heart. Between small satisfactions and some gray notes, Dora's life continues in a comfort zone that gives her security. But fate is about to knock on her door and Dora is a woman who has the strength to get back into the game.

Chiara Baldi 's debut work, "The heir of happiness" (Mondadori Electa, 2023, pp. 228) tells us how complex it is to come to terms with ourselves and our feelings . And it does so first of all through the figure of the protagonist, Dora, a woman in whom many readers of the book have found themselves as Chiara Baldi herself confirms: «Dora is a woman of our time, she is a woman in whom my readers they recognize a lot. Many have written to me or said: 'Dora is a bit of me'».

But who is Dora? Can you describe it in a few words?

«She is a woman who has gone through difficult moments during a sentimental relationship, she has lost a very dear person. She has a friend who is the only person who understands her and can be close to her. He's a person who hasn't lacked difficulties, who hasn't solved everything within himself, but who still goes on".

Tell the truth: Dora really likes her…

"I'm not hiding it. He is a character that I feel very much mine within a novel in which there is a lot of me. Each character is a little bit of me and a little bit of other people who are part of my life».

Debut novel: writing it, what an adventure was it?

«Not a short adventure, given that it took me two years to write it. It wasn't always easy to put the ideas I had on paper. Maybe some elements played against me».

Guy?

«In the meantime, I have a non-literary background. I did scientific and economic studies. However, I have a great passion for reading, a passion that paradoxically turned against me while I was writing. After reading so many imported books I found myself making comparisons when I had to write. Could I live up to the great men and women writers I had read?».

Then, scientific and economic studies, then a novel. But do you feel that you are more reason or feeling?

«Thanks to this novel I have realized a great dream, that of writing, a dream that I hope will continue. And I became absolutely romantic. If before I was more head, now I'm heart. I grew up with my novel, I changed a lot, even on a sentimental level. And my relationships with the people who are dear to me have changed.

All this thanks to the novel?

«In a certain sense, in narrating Dora, I laid bare myself. The moment I realized this, I discovered a part of myself that emerged only in writing, but that I couldn't reveal in any other way».

How did the people around you experience this change?

«Meanwhile, no one - neither my partner, nor my best friend, nor even my family - knew that I was writing. They only found out after I signed the book deal. Nobody expected this and they were very amazed. And then they became my first readers and female readers».

Will there be a sequel to the book?

«Yes, I'm working on a second chapter of Dora's story».

How is this second adventure?

«I'm certainly less worried, perhaps also thanks to the fact that readers are appreciating my first novel. Here: I have to deal with the fear of disappointing that has read and appreciated me».

Are you afraid of disappointing yourself?

«No, also because the sequel is the result of personal growth that took place thanks to the first novel. Dora will grow up, she will solve some of her problems and that's what's happening to me too».