La reputazione

In 1980s Rome, the Joséphine boutique is a corner of Paris in the heart of the Parioli district: business is booming thanks to the flair of the owner, Marie-France, who welcomes customers with her seductive French accent. Her enthusiasm infects the indecipherable associate Joshua and the three girls who work for her, eager to gain freedom and independence. Among them is Barbara, an eternal philosophy student who arrived at the shop by chance and is ready to let Marie-France teach her how to live. Thanks to her, she will discover that fashion is anything but a frivolous business: it is a ritual, a jargon, a dream, a secret… For those who, like Marie-France, have made it a mission, it is an antidote to pain, to the anguish of disappearing, to the changes that time inflicts. Everything is going well, until Marie-France has an idea that will prove catastrophic: to open a line for teenagers. Day after day, the surface of apparent serenity cracks. Strange coded messages and threats appear, and a vile slander spreads through the shop, sparing no one. Rumours multiply and hostility towards Marie-France and her family grows in the neighbourhood. A young girl disappears: is there a link with the rumours? With prose capable of depth and lightness, Ilaria Gaspari questions the relationship between appearance and identity, the weight of slander and the difficult conquest of maturity. What happens when mistrust colours the way we see things, when the boundaries between reproaches and gossip become blurred, when trusting others means taking risks? Barbara is not ready to find out, she may not be ready to become an adult, but she will have no choice.