“At some point it is easier to go to war than to return home.”
Attention please. We are faced with a true narrative text, as has not happened to us for a long time, in which the story narrated, modern in many of its aspects, is combined with a dusty style (in a positive sense) typical of quality writing after the Second World War. As we like to specify, the text will last for years, and not to be eaten in a few months in bookshop windows and then immediately replaced by something else more salable.
The story told is that of Alma, a young woman who after many years finds herself forced to return home to Trieste, where she finds her father’s inheritance waiting for her.The protagonist of the story gives the book its name, but in our opinion it could have been called Trieste just as well, because they overlap perfectly. Alma itself, like her city, so hated by her (?) is a borderland. Past and present, duties of blood and moral duties, feelings towards the father and feelings towards the mother, certain memories and imaginary memories of events that perhaps never happened try to coexist on a disputed territory, where the borders are blurred, and every meter gained today, will be lost tomorrow. Concepts perhaps more familiar to those who live in certain territories, which could prove to be a wonderful discovery for those who perhaps live in other places, but which will find themselves in the divided heart of Alma.
In the chaos of memories and new discoveries, we appreciated the maturation of the protagonist, which in addition to the relationship with places and family relationships, can be appreciated in the relationship she has with Vili, officially Guglielmo according to the documents. An acquired brother who, under the protection of bilingualism, will be saved from the war that broke out in the country after the death of Marshal Tito, and will become a friend, a love and then a stranger.
We really enjoyed getting lost in the historical-political-cultural references of what Yugoslavia was; of those who tried to the best of their ability to build a better reality, which was not forced to return within the sphere of American or Soviet influence, like Alma’s father, who went so far as to sacrifice his family for an ideal and a “job” which perhaps proved useless in the end.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Federica Manzon, Alma, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2024