Amunì

Amunì is a novel set in post-World War II Palermo. Totò Giuffrè, now elderly, before his memory begins to play tricks on him, decides to recount his childhood in those dark years filled with sacrifices on the part of his parents, of humble origins, dialect speakers and originally from a small district of the city. Giuseppe Giuffrè, Totò’s father, has recently lost his job and his wife Carmela is trying to earn some money by embroidering for the neighborhood noblewomen. Unfortunately, all this is not enough and, while they are trying to find a solution to feed their three children, Totò has the meeting that will change his life forever: a few steps away from him, in a sumptuous palace, lives Donna Luisa, who will introduce him to his love of books. He is passionate about reading, although hindered by his father who disapproves of any activity that does not have as its purpose the hard work from which to make money. So, while his parents, accompanied by their other two daughters, Rosa and Concetta, open a modest tavern, Totò manages to graduate in literature; and it is during his university years that he meets Sonia, who will become his life partner. The two, not caring about their social differences, manage to create a family of their own, following a single and unique hymn: Amunì, which is not only an exhortation to the movement, but also, if you will, a way of life. I invite you not to lose heart, to always and in any case move forward. Toto, together with Sonia, will be able to unite two worlds that seem so distant from each other, but which in reality can walk hand in hand. This novel aims to have a very specific task: that of making the reader understand that we must believe in ourselves, in our own abilities, to the detriment of those who do not understand us, I row against us. And, even if we fall, we rustle, we get dust on our hands, eventually, along that turbulent path, we will most likely be able to seize opportunities that, if we hadn’t fallen, we never would have seized.