Author:
Fabio Genovesi
Publishing house:
Mondadori
Date of publication:
06-06-2023
Palos, Spain, August 1492. Nuno is 16 years old, and he is a crab. Or at least that is the nickname given to him by his mother, who died a few months earlier and of whom Nuño retains a memory that is both pain and light. Although living on the sea, Nuño has never wanted to sail it, and prefers to watch it by clinging to the land, just as crabs do. Until, through a series of circumstances as unfortunate as they are random, he has to board a ship whose destination he is unaware of. It is the Santa María, aboard which Christopher Columbus will discover-by accident and by mistake-the New World. While Nuño will realize, he who knows nothing about navigation, that he shares his bewilderment with his much more experienced companions: all of whom are frightened by that crazy and never-before-attempted feat. Having learned to read and write from his mother, Nuño becomes Columbus’ scribe, and spending hours listening to him he feels his enthusiasm for the big dreams of this unpredictable visionary explorer grow. Through Nuno’s gaze, we travel through the most important journey in human history: the endless days before we sight land, to the discovery of a new world, a new humanity, a new, different way of understanding life. In this Earthly Paradise, Nuño will learn how much ferocity, how much greed can motivate men’s choices, but also the irresistible force of love, which will overwhelm him to the point of disrupting his days and nights.