“The rust of nostalgia scratched between the teeth like sand.”
Interesting, and we didn’t expect it. The story surprised us, capable of lighting up and staying alive; a burning soul in the deep waters of the Mediterranean.
The story opens with little Farid, a Libyan child who has never seen the sea, and daydreams about the world, as only children can do. The tranquility of everyday life and games is interrupted by the outbreak of the civil war in his country in 2011, which quickly takes away his father, and makes him discover the wickedness of the human race. Forced to flee with his mother Jamila, he soon arrives on the coasts of the country, together with other desperate people, waiting to be able to embark on a makeshift means of transport that can take him to Italy, safe from certain death. And so, even the joy of having seen the sea, turns into an ephemeral happiness, if not, in fact, into an immense sadness.
In contrast to the events of Farid’s family, there are those of Angelina, a member of the so-called Tripolitans (Italians who moved to Libya after the second war of fascist reconquest) who a few years after the end of the Second World War were forced to flee from what had been called the “fourth shore”, to find shelter and charity in the motherland.
Just like Farid many years later, Angelina also finds herself forced to leave her beloved Libya and what she had considered home, to seek salvation; but during the reading, you will notice many other similarities between the two events.
The book certainly comes from a need of the writer to tell a contemporary story, to underline the inconsistencies of Italian society. We all remember the institutional chaos and the Libyan civil war that still divides the country today, but few remember our bond with that country, especially those Italians of first or second generation, who had found a second homeland in Libya.
Nothing to add about the writing style, Mazzantini is now one of those names in modern literature that are starting to be read in schools for the quality and structure of his texts, and this book is no exception.
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Margaret Mazzantini, Mare al mattino, Einaudi, Torino, 2011