A Comforting Story

A comforting story, written in the months of the lockdown of the strange spring of 2020, is an epistolary novel. When the pandemic breaks out in Italy, and in Lombardy in particular, the author, from her little house in the hills in the province of Bergamo, like everyone else faces the fears and anxieties of the period. To come to her aid will be a packet of letters, cards, postcards and old photos. From that moment she will immerse herself in the careful rereading of that epistolary dialogue that took place between her parents during their long engagement in the 1930s. From 1934 to 1940 - at the height of the fascist era - two young people get to know each other, fall in love, imagine and build their future. In the background are the events, that became history, that will lead to the outbreak of World War II, shortly after their marriage in March 1940. Coming in are the echoes of Italian society at the time - habits and tastes - the atmospheres of the Ethiopian War, the opposing fronts of the Spanish Civil War, the change of pace of fascism until the tragic adventure of the world conflict. The author, while reading and at times commenting on the dialogues of the two fiancés, as a daughter discover the personalities of her own parents but, at the same same time, she find them different. Inside her is formed an entirely new image of them. And meanwhile, in Italy, at the end of June the emergency Covid 19 seems to have receded. So we should no longer be afraid - the author reflects - why then does the media don't give up on us? Waving the bogeyman of the fateful second wave? And of the only means miraculous for us, the Holy Vaccine? Doubts... questions... but A Comforting Story will also comfort and console readers because, in the varied scenario of the world in which Good and Evil face each other, we will always be inspired by those hosts of men and women of good will that make it advance.