"Like the Empty Sky": The Sacred Bond of Motherhood in Adversity

Offering the narrative of a mother learning to live with cancer while raising a daughter with a rare developmental disorder, the novel "Like the Air" has won numerous prestigious Italian literary awards.

During the recent European Literature Days 2026, two panel discussions about the book "Like the Void" attracted a large number of readers. This is because, since its release in Vietnam, "Like the Void" has quickly touched the hearts of readers with its poignant authenticity and the rare, sacred maternal love amidst adversity.

The novel "Like the Void" - Photo: NN

At less than 200 pages long, "Like the Void" is simply a letter from a mother to her daughter, a child born with a severe congenital brain defect, unable to speak, unable to care for herself, unable to grow up in the way the world defines adulthood. But this letter was written in the days leading up to the mother's departure from this world, written with all the love and pain a human being can contain.

Without lamenting, Ada d'Adamo wrote as if whispering to her child about her body, about motherhood, in a voice so clear and honest it was painful, yet strangely warm. Every word was written as if it were an embrace for herself and for her little one. So even after she was gone, that letter remained – like the air, gentle as the wind, but never fading away.

Ada d'Adamo was once a ballet dancer. For a dancer, the body is a tool, a language, an identity. But her daughter, Daria, was born with corpus callosum aplasia, leaving her unable to speak or control the most basic bodily functions. Ada d'Adamo called it a "mockery" of fate, that the child of someone who had spent her life mastering her own body was born with a body completely beyond her control.

Caring for her daughter, Ada experienced countless moments of exhaustion, endured countless outbursts of anger, and had moments when she wanted to give up everything, to escape from the room where her daughter was being treated, from the emotionless machines, from the smell of the hospital, from the inescapable reality. She frankly admitted her imperfections as a mother, while society has traditionally imposed unspoken standards on mothers: unconditional love, selfless sacrifice, and never being allowed to be tired.

It is this frankness that has allowed Ada's book to transcend the boundaries of a personal story and become a genuine political voice in Italy.

When Ada discovered she had terminal cancer, the first question that came to her mind wasn't about her own survival, but who would care for Daria when she was gone? This is a fear unique to mothers of severely disabled children, a fear rarely acknowledged by society: they cannot die before their child because there is no one to replace them. And a mother's love, however boundless, cannot prolong the lives of both mother and child.

In her book "Like the Void," Ada d'Adamo transformed the most personal story of her life into a call to public conscience and a powerful voice against institutional shortcomings: inadequate care services, insufficient social welfare policies, the gaps left by the state, and the burden mothers must fill with their own strength and love.

Ada's cancer and Daria's disability are two separate tragedies, yet they both raise questions about the limits of love, the capacity for human endurance, and the meaning of presence when everything else is slipping away. The lives of this mother and daughter prompt the reader to ask: how fortunate are we? How much blessing do we receive each day?

As Ada d'Adamo's debut and only book, "Like the Air" was born during the author's days in her sickbed, when her body was being ravaged and weakened by illness, and when her time on earth was running out. Then, in the summer of 2023, the book was awarded the prestigious Premio Strega prize, but its author was no longer alive to receive it. Ada d'Adamo passed away just days after receiving the nomination, carrying with her the cancer that had drained her life during her final years.

"Like the Silence" is not just a book about illness or loss. It is a song about life, about love, about the small but enduring light that remains after every vicissitude of life. The book not only won the Premio Strega 2023 but also conquered a series of other prestigious Italian awards such as the Premio Strega Giovani, Super Mondello, and Mondello Giovani – a remarkable achievement for a debut novel.

Transcending all language barriers and national borders, the book has touched the hearts of millions of readers worldwide, including in Vietnam. The book was published jointly by Nha Nam Publishing House and the Vietnam Writers Association Publishing House.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/tua-thinh-khong-tinh-mau-tu-thieng-lieng-trong-nghich-canh-753209.html