A nice chat with the author of 'Il fruscio degli eucalipti': Maria Grazia Zedda

who shows us with her eyes, and gently leads us with her words, into the world of disability and equal opportunities

As you know, for us at Il Mio Salotto, art is not just painting or sculpture, but when we talk about art, we do so at 360°, and so writing is also an art form for us, especially if it gives emotions, like the book "Il fruscio degli eucalipti" (The rustling of the eucalyptus trees), by Maria Grazia Zedda (Edizioni Il Maestrale).

The book, which is very autobiographical, is based on the writer's life of difficult but also rich years of experiences that led her to achieve countless milestones and make her the person she is now. In the book, the main character has name Martina and is an almost completely deaf girl. She was born and raised in Cagliari, Sardinia. Unfortunately, the reality in which she lives, in a beautiful country but with its many limitations, makes her feel suffocated and her disability is seen almost as a punishment. All this, in addition to a nasty quarrel with her father, leads her to make a difficult decision, to leave Sardinia. So at the age of 20, with her closest friend Francesca, and a backpack full of dreams, hopes and recklessness, she leaves her family and her Sardinian homeland to create a new life for herself in London. Unfortunately, even in England, it will not all be rosy, and she will be disappointed and hurt by prejudice towards her disability, not to mention sexism as the protagonist is a woman in a male-dominated work environment, for example, and even experiences stalking.

She soon learns to react to adversity by challenging herself and overcoming her own limitations in fear of challenging the status quo and the violence of an exclusionary society.

"Il fruscio degli eucalipti" is an intense novel, which made me live and understand better all the difficulties faced by people with sensory disabilities in everyday life, in a society like ours that constantly struggles for equal opportunities. But above all, it is the story of a woman, of her growth, who despite the many obstacles that life put in front of her, never gave up and wanted to prove that to want is to be able.

I had the good fortune to meet and interview Maria Grazia, but more than an interview, it was like a chat between friends. As a half-Sardinian expatriate first in London and then in Sydney, I found myself in many passages of the novel and it was therefore a pleasure for me to be able to speak in person with the author.

Maria Grazia Zedda

Maria Grazia immediately tells me that she normally reads lips, but that to be sure of the information she receives, she would eventually ask me to confirm what she understood. As she recounts in the book, this was also a strength for her work. It gave her and still gives her the opportunity to be more precise and accurate in researching and transcribing information, as she had to ask for confirmation.

Hearing only 10% from her right ear and 25% from her left, she explains that she hears vowels more and consonants less, which made it more difficult for her in Anglo-Saxon countries, with English being a language with main consonants. Fortunately, thanks to technology and the possibility of making video calls, Maria Grazia can easily do her job and talk and especially listen to more people; in fact, software such as Microsoft Teams gives her the possibility to make video calls with subtitles. She explains that sometimes it is challenging to read all the time and at the end of the day she is really tired, but the satisfaction that her work gives her is priceless.

Maria Grazia in fact works to help other people for equal opportunities.

The events in the book, which encompassed about 2 years, took place instead in about 8 years in which she traveled and worked in inclusion programs in Bologna (with which she still collaborates with ASPHI, the non-profit organization that organizes an Expo every 2 years on technology that empowers the disabled) but also in the USA, first in San Francisco, and then after a period in Italy, returned but to Charleston, a port city in South Carolina, then to Philadelphia, again with her partner Ian Sheeler, as well as husband and father of her teenage daughters. Her encounter with a stalker in South Carolina also gave her an insight into the topic of stalking addressed in the book. I won't spoil anything else!

Even in America, however, it was not all sunshine and roses. Unfortunately, although she had medical insurance thanks to her job, she did not have maternity (women's rights are much less than in Europe), nor coverage for her husband. So Maria Grazia realized that the United States was not the place where she wanted to raise her daughters and have her family live. So she returns to the UK alternating between Scotland and London, the place where it all began and where she now resides with her family. She initially worked as a consultant for inclusion and accessibility, while today as Senior Manager for Equal Opportunities and Inclusion for her staff (about 2000 employees), she helps various departments to produce inclusive policies through programs aimed at High Speed Two, the company that is building Europe's largest high-speed railway, in an attempt to bring the cities of Birmingham and Manchester up to London's pace as economic centers of the UK.

Maria Grazia is keen to tell me that she is not a writer, she does not feel like one, she does not write novels or books of literature, and she did not write 'The Rustle of the Eucalyptus' with this intention. That was not her goal. She, who in fact is not a professional writer, wanted to talk about her personal experience and confront the readers of the book with food for thought and questions that she too has been asking herself for many years, such as 'why do people tend to consider people who experience a psycho-physical condition of disability as different? In the end, what does it mean to be normal and to be different?".

She also wanted to make people understand that those with disabilities like hers, for example, are perfectly capable of doing any job if equipped with specific tools such as, for example, an amplified telephone for the deaf, as she mentions in the book.

For Maria Grazia, reading and writing is a refuge, she does not have to struggle to hear and read lips and has always loved to write at an amateur level. Having to do it as an outlet and help after a family bereavement, she rediscovered the passion that triggered her desire to write her novel.

A book that, as has been said many times in these lines, touches on many sensitive topics, with gentleness and a lot of sensitivity without omitting funny moments to alternate between laughter and a few tears. I urge everyone to read it!

If we have intrigued you a little, we leave you the link to the book

in the paper version: Il fruscio degli eucalipti - Edizioni Maestrale

e in the e-book version: Il fruscio degli eucalipti (Narrativa) eBook : Zedda, Maria Grazia: Amazon.it: Libri.

...and if you want to follow the author on social media, this is her Instagram page: mariagrazia.zedda