A Piercing Cry, along with Artemisia, is a novel of female development. The question who am I?, posed in Anna Banti's first novel Itinerario di Paolina, comes full circle in this, her final testimonial work. The central dilemma faced by the protagonist is also mirrored in the author's own life: whether her true vocation was as an art historian or as a writer of fiction. By revisiting the crucial events of her past, Agnese Lanzi...