★ Focusing on the hidden pain of 10% of women, this work deeply analyzes endometriosis - a stubborn disease that affects 1 to 2 out of every 10 women worldwide but is often misdiagnosed. Through medical science popularization and social research, it lifts the veil on this mysterious "shadow disease" recognized by the medical community, filling the gap in social awareness.
★ With a sharp and incisive pen, the author reveals her 30-year struggle from being ignored for menstrual pain at age 15 to a near-death emergency at 45. She exposes personal traumas such as fertility difficulties, incorrect treatments, and marital troubles, reflecting the collective predicament of contemporary women caught between body shame and medical challenges.

Story of a Pain That Cannot Be Spoken
Endometriosis is a chronic and debilitating gynecological disease that affects 10-15% of women. Its causes aren’t entirely clear, the diagnosis isn’t always simple, and there isn’t a definitive cure. The disease is still recognized and diagnosed with an average delay of ten years. Lately, thanks also to testimonials shared by influencers on social media, we have started talking about it more and things are slowly changing.
The story of Tea Ranno’s life is deeply connected to her journey with that disease. This memoir, written in the powerful and moving language that her readers have come to recognize, starts off when she wakes up in the hospital. Tea is forty-five and she has just had emergency surgery for an infection that had spread from her uterus to her intestines, liver, and even lungs, and was about to kill her. The tape rewinds and the story of Tea and the fire in her belly goes back to when she was a teenager: the pain that is trivialized by everyone else, that can’t be talked about, the interiorized sense of shame that drives her to downplay things, to hide; the relationships avoided, the loves lost, and finally a diagnosis; and then, when true love arrives, the difficulties in getting pregnant, in vitro fertilization, and more incorrect treatments, surgeries, and wanting to share and seek stories of other women who have also been living with that fire inside.

TEA RANNO has a law degree and works in law and literature. Her debut novel Cenere was finalist for the Premio Calvino and the Premio Berto, and winner of the Premio Chianti. She then published the novels In una lingua che non so più dire and with Mondadori La sposa vermiglia (2012, winner of the Premio Rea), Viola Fòscari (2014), L’amurusanza (2019), Terramarina (2020, winner of the Premio Città di Erice), and Gioia mia (2022).