Graziella Monni
Gli amici di Emilio

Impacted by the widespread closures of March, April, and May, the library of a commuter town in the Cagliari area launched a bibliotherapy initiative: involved by the librarian, many Sardinian authors recommended three books to readers.

So, after a chat with the librarian, I decided to buy this book blindly: Gli amici di Emilio by Graziella Monni, a teacher and school principal from Nuoro, as well as the winner of the Premio Calvino with a yet unpublished text.

The book lay dormant for a few weeks because I'm not used to reading something on someone else's recommendation, even less so on the advice of strangers. Mine, and I believe many others' reading journeys, weave a path where the first book read leads to the next, through clear or obscure plots and references, explicit or implicit, personal or general, and so on until the latest one.

Thus, “Gli amici di Emilio” languished between the pages for weeks until I opened it to finish it in just a few days.

The book is devourable: Monni’s writing is indeed clear and flowing, and the story grabs you and sweeps you away from the first chapter.

The structure of the book is circular. It begins in the office of lawyer Giovanni Lai, the mayor of a small Barbagia village, Corilè. It ends when the mayor Filippo Lai, the mayor’s son, sits in that room.

The relationships binding the members of the Lai family are one of the strong points of this book. In fact, all the Lai characters are undoubtedly moral, struck by a tragic fate. Upon the death of the first mayor, lawyer Lai, a convinced fascist, is appointed mayor coram populo: everyone acknowledges his honesty and uncommon abilities. The lawyer possesses recognized moral integrity, a skilled dialectic with which he ensures community interests against external threats, and a good capacity for observation. Having fallen in love and married Margherita, they give their only son a liberal education. The family's open-mindedness and intelligence make Filippo, like Giovanni, a leader. But freedom, friendships, and the recounting of Emilio Lussu's life turn Giovanni and five other friends into young antifascists, forced into exile.

Odi et amo. The clash between two such contrasting passions, the love for a father and the hatred for the ideology, as well as the love for a son and adherence to something that “kills” a son, works. A contrast that is repeated with reversed roles between Filippo's friend, Francesco, and his father Dodore Lenin.

In the midst of the struggle between fathers and sons are the mothers: donna Maddalena, who chose her husband and is as strong as everyone in her family; Francesco's mother who holds the medal for her son to her chest as if he were still there, with her. There are those who have lost a love due to cruel destiny and survive like the priest's sister Perpetua, there is the office secretary who performs a heroic act, as she could, and then, and then...

We were mentioning Lussu’s story and Filippo's personality as a leader: thus, together with friends, Filippo falls in love with that symbol of integrity and creates the “Gli amici di Emilio” band in honor of the polestar in the life journey of Filippo, Francesco, and the others.

In the other characters of the town, every contrast is nullified: good and brave against immoral, evil, and fascists. Antagonists’ helpers and helpers of the antagonists of the Lai family. This did not seem like a flaw to me per se, but while the dialogues of the main characters are always intense, those among the secondary characters seem weaker and more didactic.

The places: Corilè does not exist, but it is real. The spirit of a Sardinian village permeates every page of the book. The lesson of one of the masterpieces of Sardinian and Italian literature like Il Giorno del Giudizio is not followed naively, but in the description of Corilè and in many pages, we hear the echoes of Salvatore Satta's Nuoro.

Beatrice Monni was a pleasant surprise, and Gli amici di Emilio is a book I highly recommend you read: you won’t regret it.