Summer still burns

Author:
Chiara Fina
Publishing house:
Guanda
Date of publication:
11-04-2023

Carlotta is a 13-year-old girl like any other, a normal family, a normal house overlooking the bitter fields of Salento. Emma is a little older and her biography is at opposites: half-Irish origins, musician parents, a psychedelic mansion with no rules. Theirs is a strong friendship, but one crossed by many shadows. A bond disrupted suddenly, during the last days of that summer that would mark them forever. When she wakes up in a hospital bed, Carlotta bears the indelible marks of violence that her mind tries to remove. Emma is what remains of that cursed afternoon.

Many years later, a boy knocks on the protagonist’s door. He is Emma’s son, and he demands answers that only his mother’s friend can give. And so, Carlotta tells of the dark, yet shining friendship that united them. By piecing it together with bare hands, piece by piece. Scouring the clear waters of the past in search of the truth he had not dared to delve into at the age of thirteen. A descent into the abyss, to find life again.