Translated by Margit Lukácsi, with an afterword by Zsolt Láng

"...instead of living, we just hope - Aninha did not want to surrender to such a fate... instead of longing for José and the eternal worry that comes with it, she decided to go after him."

The 1840s: Italy is not yet a unified nation-state, four young people are looking for a happier future: an orphan boy hindered by his saintly single-mindedness, a woman with refined senses and intelligence, a painter who paints portraits of light-blooded aristocratic ladies, and Colonel Garibaldi, seen with the loving gaze of sensual Aninha. Alessando Mari writes a large-scale novel about youth. About the body, the mind, the youth of a nation. A large-scale folk history.

About the author:
Alessandro Mari (1980) lives in Milan. He worked as a publishing reviewer and ghostwriter, wrote his dissertation on Thomas Pynchon, is currently a translator and works in the culture section of some national daily newspapers. He began his writing career with the novel Troppo umana speranza (Very Human Hope, Feltrinelli, 2011), with which, among other important awards, he won the Viareggio Repaci Award in 2011, and was well received by both critics and the public. Since then, another novel and a children's book have been published by the Feltrinelli publishing house.