The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Bajani, Andrea. If You Kept a Record of Sins. Translated by Elizabeth Harris, Archipelago Books, 2021.

If You Kept a Record of Sins, by Andrea Bajani, is told from the perspective of Lorenzo, who addresses his dead mother directly for the entirety of the novel. Lorenzo’s monologue is organized into brief, unnumbered chapters which skip back and forth between his experiences in Romania, where he has traveled for her funeral, and memories from his childhood in Italy.

Lorenzo arrived in Bucharest and met Christian, his mother’s chauffeur, at the airport. Christian drove him to his mother’s workplace, an industrial site presided over by Anselmi, his mother’s business partner and former lover. Lorenzo already knew him from the past, but Anselmi introduced himself anyway. He welcomed Lorenzo exuberantly but tactlessly, and assigned him to the care of Monica, a young Romanian woman. The narrative then shifts to Lorenzo’s memories, triggered by the meeting with Anselmi. His mother, Lula, invented a machine in the shape of a giant egg, designed to help people lose weight. When she first launched it, she took Lorenzo to the press conference. She traveled around the world showcasing this egg, and she started visiting Romania regularly. Lorenzo used to see Anselmi at the firm where she worked. Anselmi also came over on Tuesday nights, when Lorenzo’s adoptive father was away from home.

The night before the funeral, Lorenzo went out for dinner with Anselmi and his circle. The next morning, he and Christian went to look at the Ceauşescu Palace. Through Lorenzo’s memories, we learn that his mother came from a wealthy, controlling family who arranged her first marriage, and cast her off when she had an affair with Lorenzo’s father. The funeral annoyed Lorenzo because it was disorganized and undignified.

Lorenzo and Monica went to Anselmi’s apartment, then Lorenzo visited Viarengo, a coffin-maker and an old friend of his mother and Anselmi. Lorenzo tried out one of the coffins, and ended up staying the night. He learned from Viarengo that Lula had died alone and miserable. The combination of drinking too much beer, and seeing photos of Lula in later life, made Lorenzo sick. The next day he and Christian scratched Anselmi’s car with keys, and went on a tour of the Ceauşescu Palace. Lorenzo spent the night in his mother’s apartment, thinking about her. In the morning he and Anselmi went to the barbers together, and afterwards had a heated argument about Lula.

Lorenzo and Monica went for another drive, and fell asleep together by the roadside. At the work site, Anselmi asked Lorenzo to sell him his mother’s company shares or to join the business. Turning back to the past, Lorenzo remembers when Lula bought him a small plot of land, and sent him a picture of herself standing on it, next to a signpost bearing his name. Lorenzo and Christian visited Lula’s grave and left her a note. Back at her apartment, Lorenzo threw out some of her possessions.

Lorenzo and Monica went to the airport to organize his flight home. Lorenzo returned to the work site and refused Anselmi’s offer to buy the shares. Then he went to say goodbye to Viarengo, who showed him the signpost with his name that Lula had used in the photo years ago. Monica kissed Lorenzo goodbye, and wanted to go up to his apartment, but he rejected her. Finally, Christian and Lorenzo set out to find the place where Lula had bought land and took the photo.