Di fuoco e seta

War does that too: it paints everything black, disrupts the harmony of places, and drains beauty from things. This is a story with two beginnings and a surprising ending. It begins in the present day, the summer when Lianna arrives in Solferino to spend some time with her mother and confide in her what she has never told her. Lianna’s mother died suddenly a few months earlier, and something of her is lost in the girl’s heart and mind. But there is another beginning: in the summer of 1859, in the same village, Alvise Malastalla, known as Visio, ‘dies and is reborn’ after being shot with a hunting rifle while being chased by a man whose chickens he had tried to steal. On that ‘magical’ and frightening night, Visio finds a new family: a friend, Sante, and a love, Altea, and with them he will witness the most devastating battle of the Risorgimento, that of Solferino. It will be old Asé, the keeper of the Solferino cemetery, who will tell Lianna these stories ‘of fire and silk’, of young people willing to do anything to be together, of love and battles, and reveal ancient, unexpected secrets to her. Because between the past and the present, people’s destinies can still intertwine and the distances between those who love each other can dissipate. Recommended reading age: 11 years and up.