Synopsis

What must one give up to finally become oneself? Anna leaves the home where she grew up, causing her family to disappear. In the city where she arrives, she finds a truly unusual job for a young woman: she cares for an elderly woman, Maria, with great tenderness, caring unsparingly for her ailing body and listening to stories about her beloved grandson, whom she hasn't seen for years. The same night Maria dies, Anna gives birth to a child. But the pain of the past is too raw, paralyzing, and once again she must leave. She abandons her son in the hospital, to an unknown fate. Thus begins a new journey, seeking salvation from guilt: her own and that of others. The encounter with a young foreigner and her family is a small oasis for Anna, where she can regain her strength. Soon her journey transforms and becomes a quest: her destination is Giovanni, Maria's mysterious grandson. Giovanni will teach her a new way to understand her body and herself, through the techniques of sensitive dance. Marta Pastorino writes a raw, essential novel. She touches on uncomfortable, almost unspeakably searing themes, and does so with courage and delicacy, using a language that proceeds by subtraction, through small bursts of measured intensity. The narrator leads us through the story with the confidence of a choreographer who knows how to conceal effort and pain in the elegance of a movement.