Synopsis

Giulio is a frail thirteen-year-old with a passion for books when, during a long summer spent at camp, he falls in love with Stella, the daughter of his widowed father's new girlfriend. Stella is different from him: strong, refined, and rebellious. Over the years, living together in the same house, the two go from being somewhat like brothers to lovers, but not without suffering. Their family opposes them, especially Giulio's irascible and disillusioned father, who has always preferred one of his friends to his son: Bobo, a fast-talking, fast-paced motorcycle rider who fancies himself a new Rimbaud. Stella, too, has always been attracted to Bobo, but their intense and volatile relationship has never developed into a true relationship. Stella, perpetually searching for someone to save her from Bobo and from herself, seems to have found the perfect match in Giulio. Yet, on the verge of marriage, she forgoes tranquility to pursue excitement. With evocative yet precise, surgical writing, Francesca Zupin, a master at giving voice to a male narrator, surprises us by telling the truth about her protagonists, never compromising them, immersing them in atmospheres suspended between nostalgia and disenchantment. Time, with its acrobatics and accelerations, its returns and regrets, almost becomes an additional character, acting and interacting with others: challenging them, disappointing them, caging them, but also creating those glimpses of light and beauty that are possible, perhaps, only by looking back.