La gentile

Arriving in Italy in the early 1900s, the American Alice Hallgarten marries Baron Leopoldo Franchetti and convinces him to finance a major philanthropic project: the foundation of a school for farmers’ children. Alice’s story is thus intertwined with that of Ester, poor and uneducated, a descendant of converted Jews: a “Gentle”. Born into a family that does not understand her ideas and hinders her in every way, thanks to the support of the noblewoman the child is able to go to school and cultivate the hope of one day becoming a teacher. But the baroness’s health soon deteriorates, forcing her to abandon Ester to her fate… A passionate historical novel that questions the limits of love and the vital force of hatred.