Synopsis

A rift that seemed impossible to mend, a family that over the years finds its way through the strength of its bonds. There are books that get inside you, that lead you by the hand through everyday life. This is what happens with Roberta Recchia's magnetic debut, a story you can't put down, with vibrant, authentic protagonists. Like Marisa and Stelvio Ansaldo, who in 1950s Rome fall in love in the shop of her father, Ettore. Theirs is one of those families from black-and-white love stories, until, years later, their beloved sixteen-year-old daughter Betta—beautiful and resourceful—is murdered on the Lazio coast, and everyone loses their center. That affection and mutual complicity are gone, only the grief for the daughter lost forever. No one knows, however, that Betta's cousin Miriam, on the beach with her, was also a victim of unspeakable violence. Against the backdrop of an investigation hampered by omissions and prejudices against a teenager who faced life with all the exuberance of her age, Marisa and Miriam must confront the daily burden of their own tragedy. The secret of that night weighs heavily on Miriam until—now at the limit—an encounter with Leo, a young man from the suburbs, brings an unexpected light: the beginning of a love that breaks through where no one dared look.