WATER AND ZAMMÙ: Stories for a handful of days

"Every story in this book is a small act of rebellion against oblivion. Memory, then, becomes the future." Twenty-six stories, some inspired by real events, unfold like movements in a musical score, forming a collection that binds them together and, in one way or another, reveals what they share. A journey into the human soul, between past and present, dream and memory, nostalgia and hope, solitude and the longing for love, told with empathy and a light touch. The settings-Naples and Southern Italy above all-emerge as the backdrop to these stories, yet at the same time become living organisms in their own right: remote taverns, decaying palaces, laundry hanging out to dry, as well as mountain villages, grazing lands, and even seats of power and ancient authority. Here we encounter ordinary yet extraordinary lives, very different from one another but united by the same destiny: the struggle to preserve their freedom and dignity in a world that seems intent on taking both away. Men, children, animals, often lost-like Jonathan the seagull, returned to life-in a universal city that sometimes seems to have no sky. And women of exceptional strength: Danta, Carmela, Mirta, Giulia, Igme, Dhyāna, Candida, Amelia, Anita, and Sappho.