T.it all started with a notebook, bought when she went to live in the countryside in Umbria. Since then Susanna Tamaro – author of novels, essays and texts for children that have made her known all over the world – has taken notes and drawn, has frequented nature every day alone or in the company of her three beloved dogs, finding in herself «the innocent, childish, curious part, always able to be amazed and to feel emotions in front of the miraculous richness of the existing ». Thanks to the lockdown, he now gives us a delightful book, entitled Invisible Wonder.
Susanna Tamaro, Italian writer, Torino, Italy, 3rd October 2014. (Photo by Leonardo Cendamo / Getty Images)
The invisible wonder of Susanna Tamaro
Little lessons about nature, which combines her curiosity as a scientist – natural sciences have always been her passion – with her extraordinary talent for creating stories that enchant. It introduces us to a world that by now we find it hard to see, that of the plants and animals that surround us. It is a book different from any previous work by Tamaro and very personal, in which the writer reveals her relationship of friendship and symbiosis with nature, with an ironic and amused tone. It is not a change of course: actually reconnects to her years of work as a documentary maker in the naturalistic field, before becoming a full-time writer. Invisible wonder it talks about meadow flowers and bees, cuckoos, blackbirds and woodpeckers, but also less seductive animals, such as the bat or the monkfish. Read with pleasure, smile and learn because, as the writer reminds us, the key to love for nature is knowledge.
Invisible wonder. Little lessons on nature by Susanna Tamaro, Solferino, pp. 192, € 16.
His passion for nature dates back to childhood. How was she born in you, city child?
I’ve always wondered that too! I grew up in Trieste playing in bare public gardens. Yet I was able to recognize birds without anyone in the family having taught me. Who knows, maybe I inherited the genes of an aunt I never knew who was studying zoology. At the time it was difficult to document: there were no films on television, you learned at the museum or by reading illustrated books. The natural sciences, after the Gentile reform, have always been neglected in the Italian school. And the results are evident: there is great ignorance about nature. Lemurs seen in a documentary are better known than the animals in our house.
When did you write Invisible Wonder?
Starting from March 2020. Faced with the gloom of the times we were experiencing, I wanted to convey a sense of relaxation and freedom, with the same spirit as my children’s books. The encounters that I am telling have my garden and house as a backdrop, I accompany the text with photos and videos that can be consulted with a QR code. Writing it was a liberating experience and I don’t exclude a second episode, because some animals have been excluded.
Who are you addressing with this text?
It is transversal: to children, to adults in the city who are homesick for nature, to grandparents with grandchildren.
Is it possible to awaken that part of us capable of amazement and excitement in front of nature?
Of course, we all have it and can keep it alive. Nature gives us small moments of happiness. Life in the city, always in front of a screen, has made us unable to observe. I am amazed when I see children who are afraid to move in nature.
How to train this look in a child?
It is enough to have the opportunity to discover nature in the company of an adult who knows how to teach how to read it, creating small worlds to explore. A person capable of passionate and tell can make even an ant fascinating.
Among the many animals and flowers you write about, which are your favorites?
I loved writing about the hoopoe, with its many poetic references. The daisy is a flower that always moves me, it’s like the house dog: every year it returns faithful with blooms that look like the Milky Way.
Nature is a scent of perfumes. His memories?
I loved the flowering limes very much. I love to smell the flowers: lavender, rosemary, lilac.
Even when he tells of unattractive animals such as bat, toad or earwig, he presents them in a playful and positive light. I guess it’s not accidental …
Yes, it is a precise choice. I know nature documentaries, in which nature is presented as a company canteen, in which there are those who kill and those who are killed. I avoided this approach, focusing on the more positive and moving aspects. Think, for example, of insects: the proportion between them and us is 200,000 to one. Even the most disgusting or annoying contribute to what I call the “Award Winning Company”. Without them, which eliminate dead animals, we would be invaded by epidemics.
Is it true that he takes care of ladybugs?
Yes, they live by the hundreds in my studio, in a state of semi-lethargy in the winter. Someone occasionally wakes up, walks on books and papers. Around March, I get them some water and within ten days they take off. I can’t complain: mine is a lucky studio.
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED