Through the loves and losses of a middle-class family from Calabria,
this heady, atmospheric saga retraces the history of twentieth-century
Italy.
As a young man in the Seventies, Valentino leaves home in search of a
better life. With age, he begins to feel an intense regret, a longing
for the world and the people he left behind, which he might not be able
to recover, even after returning.
Set in Magna Graecia, the sun-drenched land where ancient Greeks stopped
in their travels and happily settled, now full of ruins, South takes
us back to a time when notaries and lawyers were undiscussed authorities
in small towns. Meet the Notaio, his lover Magda, a Polish countess and
a spy, and delve into their love story in Naples; meet the Farmacista,
owner of the first chemist's shop in town, his wife Lea, and their
children; follow the paths where these lives cross, and Tamara, Mara for
short, marries into the Notaio's family; get to know charming Uncle
Giorgio, an extravagant loner, owner of two small Gauguins, and
Gioacchino, the house ghost.
Servants, drivers, peasants fully devoted and bound to their masters
enliven this tale of love and loss, war and peace, politics and power,
told in an elegant, affecting prose that transports us through time and
space.
