Myrta Merlino releases memoir about her mother, sinologist Annamaria Palermo

Journalist Myrta Merlino has released a new book, ‘La bambina del miracolo. Storia della mia mamma geniale’ (published by La nave di Teseo), which chronicles the life of her mother, Annamaria Palermo.

Palermo was a prominent sinologist and academic whose life spanned significant 20th-century historical shifts. Born in Caserta in 1943, she studied in Paris during the 1968 protests and later became one of the first 500 Westerners permitted to study in China during the Cultural Revolution. Her career included teaching at the University of Naples, working at Columbia University in New York, and serving as the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing.

Merlino describes her mother as a radical and free-spirited figure who balanced a complex professional life with a non-traditional approach to motherhood. The memoir explores the tension between Palermo’s pursuit of personal emancipation and the impact of her frequent absences and unconventional lifestyle on her children.