KOstya is a ten -year -old Ukrainian boy. Since he was born, he saw around him Only the war. From his father Roman he knows that his mother died. Both Campania Thanks to the money that grandmother Irina, Roman’s mother, for twenty years he sends from Italy, where the maid does.
Like many Ukrainian womenshe fled from an unhappy marriage and a drunk husband, and with money she dreams of giving the family a better existence. When Roman decides to volunteer in the Ukrainian army, he sends Kostya alone in Naples On a daring journey with an address in the pocket, pinned behind the presumed photo of his mother.
One morning, the little one knocks on the door of midnight life, one depressed teacher and suicide aspirant who teaches the evening and who tries to lick your wounds that life inflicted on her: the loss of the only son and the husband who left After thirty years together. Irina is her maid: putting Order in the insulated house From a parrot called Massimo, like the ex -husband, he tries to push her out of the pain bubble.
One day the woman disappears, leaving Kostya for life. Who finds himself forced, despite himself, a take care of the child. And in doing so, he will find the strength to resume His existence in his hand. The new novel by Viola Ardone, So much still life (Einaudi), It is a three -part story in first person: that of a child forced to grow ahead of time be wary of adults and those of the two women, apparently so different but united by one Same destiny.
Viola Ardone, 51 years old, returns to the bookstore with a novel that unites the great story with that of ordinary people (Ph: Ludovico Brancaccio)
Ardone, born in 1974, Neapolitan and Latin Neapolitan high school teacher With a great talent for writing, he got known with the bestseller THEThe children’s train (2019). Also this time he does not disappoint: he manages to instill one vein of humor In the tragedies of life, and above all he knows how to slide the hearts of his protagonists, with delicacy and realismopening the door to hope.
In his latest books, he said stories from the past, taking inspiration from real characters and facts. Why did this focus on the present this time?
I wanted to get out of the historical story and the convenience of moving on what has already happened. I wanted to try to think about what involves us today, on our fears, on how we react in front of an information that leaves us dismayed, facing the moment when the life of the other enters ours. As happens for life, an Italian woman who finds Kostya, a Ukrainian child, on the doormat of her house and must take care of it, as a putative mother.
Why Ukraine?
We all have Russian tanks in mind at the border. We thought of a different course, thanks to NATO or international organizations. Instead, there has been an invasion that will end up in the history books. These events struck us strongly because in ours he was made of smartphones and artificial intelligence we saw the violence of the wars of the twentieth century return. And in us there are many questions: who is right? When will it end and there will be peace? What can Europe do? Literature tries to give answers to these questions through stories.
Who is Irina, the maid who reads Dante and has the obsession with the order?
Irina studied philosophy, her passion. The order at home is her work, and she builds a philosophy of the domestic order. She is a woman like many others, who participate in our life but of which we know very little. Even life does not know Irina and her inner world. The linguistic gap does not allow to transmit the irony and wealth that characterize it when it speaks Ukrainian. After the invasion, we started looking at these women with different eyes, to be interested in their history. As in my previous novels, the personal and political side also fall here to mix.
So much still life of Viola Ardone, Einaudi. Freestyle (pages 336, Euro 19).
Has his relationship with the boys been a source of inspiration to create the character of Kostya?
Yes. I add that I also have a 13 year old son. The boys know how to surprise us, giving voice to things we don’t even imagine. They have a practical sense and the ability to make use of technology. For them the mobile phone is an extra gear to solve concrete problems.
What unites Kostya, Vita, Irina?
They are characters with missing pieces. They find themselves in a particular moment of their existences and recognize themselves, becoming a family. It can be even without being united by blood relationships. Knowing how to see one’s fragility, realizing that she is partial and missing pushes to the encounter with the other. All three are then united by irony, which saves them from their losses lines.
What unleashes a child who bursts into an adult’s life in crisis?
A child like Kostya needs care, has elementary needs of food and care. For Vita, it is as if he resumed his role as a mother. On the other hand, they are the boys who make us parents.
What is your relationship with writing?
It is my way to overcome a pathological shyness. The written word makes the thought more lasting, allows you to articulate it better and give it greater clarity.
Maria Tatsos