Synopsis

This story is inspired by two coincidences. One is the snow falling in Rome, after more than twenty years of waiting, and the discovery that a young woman, Mascia, is in a coma. The other is the coincidence between Mascia's funeral, about ten days later, and the signing of a work contract. If the first snow in the life of this story's protagonist, which fell on his city when he was a child, brought with it enchantment, the second brought an accident. Mascia, his high school friend, slipped on her scooter where the snow fell and melted. This long-awaited second snow, as if white could bring back the games and wonders of childhood, instead of restoring the past, takes away a piece of the future. Because Mascia dies by mistake, just as one can die, and there is no other explanation. The protagonist talks to mutual friends, receives and sends text messages, makes excuses, searches for reasons for his thoughts and behaviors, for his escapes and returns, and finds them, blames himself, absolves himself. If Mascia, like everyone else, dies alone, the protagonist of this book, like some, does everything he can to remain alone with her, just a little longer. Constructed like a labyrinth that evokes the sense of loss in the face of grief, or like a video game navigating the still-unknown and dangerous space of adulthood, the novel follows the protagonist's thoughts, and those of the reader, around the loss of those we love, and pauses at the limit of human love: the unbearable limit of being unable to prevent their death.