Zero gradi

Through first-person narration, the protagonist of this story reveals how she has abandoned her home, her children, and her husband, a university professor who’s been having an affair with his young assistant for the last year. Her children are worried and don’t think she’ll be able to get by on her own, given that she’s used to living a life of relative luxury, doesn’t have a driver’s license, and is a supremely impractical person. At the age of 65 she finds herself having to relearn to do almost everything. But she’ll soon meet two very important people for her: Lele, her neighbor, a drug addict and a loner, and Roberto, the landlord of the apartment she rents and Lele’s father, a man who is cold, standoffish, and full of himself. It may be zero degrees outside, but her inner temperature is even colder. Then spring comes with new hopes and emotions. Roberto’s icy façade begins to melt, the temperature starts warming up, inside and out, and the weather is going to be quite pleasant, actually, because living is like riding a bike: you never forget how.