Gianni Solla

Hidden among the buildings on the outskirts of Naples lies a nursery that seems to hold its breath. Lorenzo returns there after many years, at a time when his life is measured only by what is no longer there. There he meets Renato, who, asking for nothing in return, offers him the two things he needs most: work and friendship. Among geraniums, bonsai, ivy, begonias, and orchids, Lorenzo discovers that a cut stem can never return to what it once was, yet it still carries the memory of what it has been — and that life can begin again precisely from those wounds. His life too.

Tora and Piccilli (north of Caserta), September 1942. David spends his days, sometimes even the night, with the pigs he guards: he knows them so well that he calls them by name. He limps from birth, and for this he is mocked by peers and mistreated by his father.

At St. Sophia Institute, Jacopo is the only boy in the class, and at eight years old his relationship with women is already complicated. Beginning with the one with his mother, who makes him memorize verses from Majakovsky, put out cigarette butts in the dishes, and devoured