Cecilia Sala’s fire: Serena Dandini’s review

Sit will be a warm autumn, they say. Certainly not for the climate or who knows, perhaps for that, given that weather changes are now the order of the day and are part of our experience as much as the eternal electoral campaign to which we are subjected relentlessly.

But hardly anyone will talk about the climatehe will certainly agitate the usual ghosts like bogeymen to grab votes without ever raising his gaze to embrace the world with its contradictions and its disasters which are instead closely connected to our small national squabbles.

We will talk about walls and naval blockades thus hoping to make us believe that immigration can be resolved by raising impossible barriers instead of governing a phenomenon that has inevitably continued to occur for decades. It doesn’t take a degree in geopolitics to see if you want to see, I believe that for us the only hope is now represented by the new generationsthe only ones who can still have a vision and talk about the planet without prejudice.

He does it with competence and passion Cecilia Sala journalist and war correspondent not yet thirty years old in his beautiful book The fire for Mondadori. To tell us about contemporaneity the author decides to give the floor to the protagonists of the future following the stories and events of several young people in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Iran: countries in turmoil that he knows and has frequented for his numerous reportages.

Intertwining history with a capital S with the personal narratives of the protagonists helps to enter directly into the “fires” that are devastating these populations which – even if we don’t want to realize it – concern our future. We will know the stories of Katerina, 28 years old, who as a model with the aspirations of many girls, found herself as a soldier to defend her Ukraine

And again Nabila, a lesbian kickboxing champion, conservative and loyal to the Islamic Republic who, shocked like many by the killing of Mahsa Amini, decided to protest and take to the streets; you hate an entire generation of Afghan girls like Zarifa, who grew up before the advent of the Talibanand then from day to night they had to give up education, work and any desire.

Knowing directly, penetrating into their daily lives, these citizens of the world, their dreams and their aspirations it makes us broaden our small horizon more than many talk shows full of abstract words, where we will never be safe from the fire if we persist in putting our heads in the sand.

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