Lena and the storm

Autrice:
Viola Ardone
Casa editrice:
Einaudi Stile Libero
Data di pubblicazione:
19-09-2023

Elba ha il nome di un fiume del Nord: è stata sua madre a sceglierlo. Prima vivevano insieme, in un posto che lei chiama il mezzomondo e che in realtà è un manicomio. Poi la madre è scomparsa e a lei non è rimasto che crescere, compilando il suo Diario dei malanni di mente, e raccontando alle nuove arrivate in reparto dei medici Colavolpe e Lampadina, dell’infermiera Gillette e di Nana la cana. Del suo universo, insomma, il solo che conosce. Almeno finché un giovane psichiatra, Fausto Meraviglia, non si ficca in testa di tirarla fuori dal manicomio, anzi di eliminarli proprio, i manicomi; del resto, è quel che prevede la legge Basaglia, approvata pochi anni prima. Il dottor Meraviglia porta Elba ad abitare in casa sua, come una figlia: l’unica che ha scelto, e grazie alla quale lui, che mai è stato un buon padre, impara il peso e la forza della paternità. Con la sua scrittura intensa, originale, piena di musica, Viola Ardone racconta che l’amore degli altri non dipende mai solo da noi. È questo il suo mistero, ma anche il suo prodigio.

Author:
Alessia Gazzola
Publishing house:
Garzanti
Date of publication:
06-05-2019

It is said that each of us, in the course of our lives, accumulates an average of thirteen secrets. Of these, five are truly unmentionable.

Lena has only one, but she makes herself felt inside like she is worth a thousand. No matter how hard she tries to forget it, it is inevitable for her to think about it again as she glimpses the island of Levura, the destination of her journey, from the ferry. Levura, where he spent the unforgettable summers of his youth. Where he has not set foot again since he was 15 years old. Now her father has given her the family home as a gift, and she has decided to rent it to turn her existence around. Because he feels adrift, like a boat lost in the waves. Because the illustrator’s work, which she loves, is at a dead end.

Lena would never have wanted to return to those walls. But it is the only chance he has. As he opens the windows and the sea-smelling wind moves the curtains, moments from his last vacation there resurface: the chats, the splashes of water on his face, the walks on the beach. And together the memory of that day, burned into his mind. His plan is to stay in Levura as little time as possible and then start over elsewhere. Yet nothing goes as he had imagined. Little does Lena know that the season tanning her pale, delicate face will be much more for her. Little does he know that the island will be a place of unexpected encounters, such as the one with Tommaso, a young doctor who hides shadows behind apparent security. Day by day, Lena discovers that the truth has many shades. That nothing is really unmentionable. Because often guilt only conceals deep fragility.

From the author of The Pupil series, an extraordinary success in bookstores and on TV, a novel about the magic of new beginnings and the will to live by going beyond one’s barriers. A novel with a protagonist who must come to terms with herself, her past and a heavy secret. A novel that has the scent of the sea, the delicacy of sand between your fingers, the strength of stormy waves.