Summary

At the outset of Forbidden Notebook, on November 26, 1950, Valeria Cossati stops at the tobacco shop to buy cigarettes for her husband Michele. At the counter, she asks to purchase a notebook, but the tobacconist tells her, “It is forbidden” (10). The tobacco shops are prohibited from selling stationery on Sundays. Valeria feels distressed and pleads with the man to sell her the notebook. He looks furtively toward the door before sliding the journal covertly across the counter, instructing her to hide it beneath her coat. Two weeks later, Valeria writes in the notebook once again. Since purchasing it, she has moved it around the house to ensure Michele and the children do not discover her secret. While the narrator longs for moments to write, when she sits with the journal, she is unsure what she should record about her life. On December 11, Valeria...