In Italian, Crudo translates to ‘raw’ and this book is indeed an attempt to record, in real time, the state of affairs in the summer of 2017, when several tragedies and obscurities made it look like the end of the word.
This is wonderfully chaotic book. Olivia Laing looks into the inner life and anxieties of a woman who struggles to make room for intimate connection, but there is so much more than this in it.