•
Rating:
'At twenty-two, I realized that what makes me the saddest are the maritime pines.
And I discovered it on a sultry afternoon, just before realizing that life was stumbling through the tears in the fabric of destiny.
Today my heart is in the shadow of a disordered row of pines with unruly roots. My feet search for balance among the cracks in the sidewalk, no one ever did anything to fix them, these obscene cracks, and I wonder [...] how do you become so neglected as to not understand that you must fix these cracks because they're awful?
And why place wild pines over concrete if after fifteen minutes you have to redo everything from scratch?' (Chapter 1)
Even though I don't appreciate Francesca Michielin's music or that of all the artists of her generation, having gotten around to reading her first novel would be incredible if it weren't for the lure of her name on the cover and a few pages skimmed in passing at a big bookstore in the center of my city and purchasing the book there during the days of a fair on independent publishing in a historic place not far from there.
The story opens with Veridiana, a singer, who, while waiting to perform a concert in the place where she grew up, is shocked by the news that her best friend, Anna, has died.
A few days later, she is at the funeral in the place where her friend grew up: inside the church where the service is held, her attention is captured by the presence of a flamboyant middle-aged woman who, with the organist's permission, plays a piece that Anna loved, but which she believed only she knew about as a secret.
After the ceremony, Veridiana searches for the woman to find out how she knew the piece, and upon finding her, is stopped by the same woman who deems the moment inappropriate.
Undeterred, Veridiana decides to return to the location in search of the woman to get an answer to her question.
The woman, barely recognizing Veridiana from the day before, invites her into her home to fulfill her wish.
The woman is Regina Palmas, a diva of the past, with whom Veridiana will start a relationship that will blossom into a deep friendship in a journey of conversations and exchanges where the two women will reveal much about themselves, about who Anna was, about music, society, and feelings.
With a touching ending.
Loading comments slowly
