Books like La chiave a stella by Primo Levi

L'amica geniale traces the lifelong friendship of Lila Cerullo and Elena Greco from childhood in 1950s Naples through adulthood, exploring how personal growth and society’s changes shape their bond.

In 18th‑century Liguria, young Cosimo di Rondò escapes punishment by climbing a tree and never returning to the ground, creating a floating court visited by historical figures, including Napoleon, and courting the spirited Viola.

On the stage, a rehearsal is in progress when actors and director are interrupted by six mysterious figures who demand to be put into a play.

The title means "A hypothesis about reality". Several reviews in Italy considered this as the first "new age" book written by an Italian author, Fabrizio Coppola, a physicist and meditator who, after reading Fritjof Capra's best-seller book "The Tao of Physics", listening to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's theories, and learning to practice transcendental meditation, realized that modern physics (including Einstein's relativity, Quantum Mechanics and other discoveries) had abandoned the strictly materialistic vision that had dominated Science in the 18th and 19th centuries. The author postulates that a direct and deep connection between "objective" Nature and "subjective" mind of human beings could exist, and consciousness could be a deep and fundamental property of the universe. This "hypotesis about reality" ("ipotesi sulla realtà" in Italian) does not come from metaphysical speculations or parapsychological purposes, but claims to be based on scientific evidence, and the purpose is to show a new direction to understand certain unexpected discoveries coming from different fields of studies, such as contemporary physics, neurosciences, psychology.

Questo è la storia di una bambina ebrea e del suo rapporto con la madre. La piccola viene nascosta in un convento cattolico alle porte di Roma per sfuggire alla deportazione. È attratta dal dio "buono dei cristiani e non da quello sempre arrabbiato degli ebrei", dalla sicurezza di quel mondo cattolico non minacciato, da una lieve vertigine mistica ambiguamente incoraggiata da qualche monaca, dalla speranza d'interpretare la Madonna alla recita di Natale. Ma quando è a un passo dall'abbracciare la nuova fede, interviene la madre, "tigre, leonessa, che ha poco tempo per libri e sinagoghe perché deve difendere le figlie", la loro vita ma anche la loro identità minacciata. Solo a guerra terminata potrà dire alla figlia: tu non sei una bambina ebrea, sei una bambina e basta.