Fiesole, 1943: in the midst of Second World War in the countryside, children grow up alternating the fear of bombs with wild games in the woods.
Thirteen-year-old Sirio not only has a boy’s name, but also the strength and desire to command the gang of kids with whom he runs every day among quarries and ruins.
Among them there is also Dante, a friend with whom you can clash, argue, but also bond in a special way. When in a castle among the hills they find a wounded soldier, mute and without memory, they will have to make a choice: is he an enemy or a simple human being to be cared for and saved?
Nicoletta Vernaafter the success of The days of Glassdedicates himself for the first time to a children’s book, The winter of the stars (Rizzoli), this time setting it in another territory he knows well, Tuscany (born in Romagna, he has lived in Florence for many years). Halfway between an adventure and a Bildungsroman, with a depth and rhythm that can conquer every type of reader, it chases the protagonist in an accelerated race towards adulthood, amidst a thousand dangers, the early commitment to the Resistance, the search for a father or new role models, the encounter with his first love.
Nicoletta Verna was born in Forlì but lives in Florence. His previous novel, Days of Glass, was a great success with the public. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
After The days of glasswhy did you still choose a story set in the years of the Second World War and the Italian resistance: what links it in a particular way to that period? I have always heard it from people in my family, it was a recurring theme at home: especially after September 8th, it had become a collective civil war, which involved everyone. Each family has had a role, a participation, a mourning, a loss: such strong experiences, great joys or great pains, are passed down, perhaps even on an unconscious level, they become an almost genetic heritage, something that marks us and we carry with us.
Why did he want to address the kids this time?
When it was proposed to me, I replied that I wouldn’t be able to do it, it terrified me: then on reflection I understood that it would be important to find a way of telling this crucial historical period of ours, the one in which the Italian Republic was born, to what is perhaps the first generation that no longer has direct witnesses to listen to it from, neither grandparents nor parents. So I accepted the challenge of writing something that could involve 12, 13, 14 year olds, using protagonists of their age and the tools of adventure and play, even if mixed with reality, hunger and the difficulties of the War, and the terror of the bombs that accompanied them every day.
In fact, he placed a gang at the center, a classic theme in youth literature: an unusual choice, however, there is a very strong female “boss”
Her name is Sirio and she is a girl strong enough to command even her companions, she succeeds because she has intelligence and charisma. She is the character who dragged me into the story, after she appeared in my mind, everything came almost easy. Or at least, I wrote faster than usual. She grew up with her mother, beautiful and indomitable, but without a father: she lacks a male reference figure and therefore in some respects she becomes male herself, taking on some of his attitudes. She’s a real pepper, she likes to command, even bully, and she tells many lies: she uses them as an escape, as a search for freedom.
The winter of the stars by Nicoletta Verna, Rizzoli408 pages, €17.50
In the story, which is imaginary, many real characters and situations appear: how did you mix fiction and reality?
My point of inspiration was a real place, the Vinciliata Castle, near Fiesole, which in that period was used as a war prison for English officers captured in Africa. That’s where I imagined a decisive choice for Sirio and his men. While I was writing I did research in the archives, I interviewed some rare remaining witnesses, including a very useful woman in her nineties with a prodigious memory, Anna Bongini. I liked including encounters with real heroes, such as “Potente”, the great leader of the Tuscan Resistance, or with real women who become mentors for Sirio, who help her grow and commit herself.
For example, Margherita Hack, of whom he paints a very vivid and captivating portrait in the book…
In those months of ’43, Hack was preparing her thesis at the Arcetri Observatory, a perfect hook to transform her into one of my characters: it is she who, above all through her example, teaches Sirio the true meaning of the word freedom, linking it to education, to culture. I wanted another model to be Anna Maria Ichino, who opened her home in Florence to anti-fascists, exiles and deserters, including Carlo Levi. Unfortunately, like many women who fought in the Resistance, she was then put aside and forgotten. I wanted to remember them and give them some light.