"Short Circuit" is the title of one of five stories in this collection, each centered on immigrants who have come to Italy seeking work and a dignified life. Belotti's style—famous above all for her groundbreaking essay-novel From the Girls' Side, a cornerstone of the feminist movement in Italy—is clear and direct. Only occasionally do the numerous historical and cultural references to the immigrants' countries of origin slow the reader's pleasure in the narrative.
Her aim is to illuminate the difficult lives of so many immigrants: their humanity, their suffering, the hopes that precede and accompany them, the hardships they face even in our country. But there is more. Foreigners also appear as secondary characters in thoroughly Italian stories that reveal the habits, small quirks, and peculiarities of our own people. Without ever raising the tone of polemic or assigning blame, Belotti manages her purpose by inviting us to reflect—and sometimes to smile. In my view, Short Circuit is particularly valuable for young readers who live amid the great questions of immigration often without understanding them deeply or feeling themselves implicated in them.
T. C., 2010