Author:
Beatrice Salvioni
Publisher:
Einaudi Stile Libero
Release Date:
01-10-2024
A 16-year-old girl runs barefoot down the street. It is night, she wears only a petticoat, and runs desperately through the deserted city. She is disappointed, full of anger, because she has discovered that she has been betrayed, and by someone she never thought could deceive her.
It opens like a rift, this terse and furious novel. We are in Monza, in April 1940. For four years Francesca knows nothing more about Maddalena. Her friend has been locked up in an asylum, and has never answered the letters she has sent her. Francesca believes it is out of resentment towards her. After all, it always fell to Maddalena to play the role of the outcast, the cursed one. But now Francesca’s life has also been shaken up: she ran away from home and went to live with Noè Tresoldi, causing a scandal. Her mother accuses her of being a degenerate, a Malacarne. Then, finally, Maddalena returns. She is small and thin, as if she had never grown up, and pretends to be the courageous adolescent of always; but Francesca sees that she is different. What has happened in the asylum? Meanwhile, Italy enters the war. Between hunger and the fear of bombs, every day becomes more difficult. And the time comes to choose sides.