“The wind blows wherever it wants” appears – Corriere.it

Billed as new Go where your heart takes youthe novel by Susanna Tamaro, The wind blows wherever it wantswill be published by Solferino on October 6th, it is part of a coherent but at the same time very complex path This is what the Trieste-born writer has achieved in these thirty years of literary activism. The epistolary form, in 1994 a letter from a grandmother to her granddaughter, today from a mother and wife who has reached the threshold of full maturity to her daughters and her husband, favors the game of references. As well as the double reading to which all of Tamaro’s novels are suitable: on the one hand, a simple plot written in a transparent style, which is attractive precisely because of its essentiality, and on the other hand, the difficult path that entails a spiritual search , which becomes increasingly clear as the story progresses. About these two elements In this new book the author has added criticism of the many aspects of a secularized society, Materialist to the point of blindness, which he continued to testify in articles written first for Avvenire and now for Corriere della Sera. A nonconformist view that focuses on bureaucracy, disregard for nature, public school programs inadequate for a complete education, the superficiality of relationships in a world focused exclusively on hyperconnection, and finally, the lack of the sacred that surrounds us all makes you poorer.

Chiara and her family have lived in a house in the hills of Parma for six years. The choice of this home corresponds to the new and peaceful phase of life that began after a serious trauma. For the first time, Chiara and her family have decided that after celebrating Christmas together, everyone will spend the holidays as they see fit. The eldest daughter, Alisha, who was adopted, will go on a trip with her boyfriend, the second daughter Ginevra will go to Cortina with her friends, little Elia, the newcomer, will be a guest of a friend and Davide, a doctor, will go with her set off on a trip to the high mountains with his old friends. Chiara, who is about to turn sixty, has decided to stay at home. She feels the passage of time and feels that it is time to come to terms with herself by writing three long letters to Alisha, Ginevra and Davide. A bit like his spiritual testament.

Alisha, meaning “blessed by God,” is an Indian child who was abandoned by her mother. Chiara and Davide will pick her up from an orphanage in Calcutta after a grueling bureaucratic process that took five years. For her, with a sunny character that reflects her name, The new mother would like to explain the reasons for the adoption. She begins with the trauma of an abortion she suffered in her senior year of high school after an affair with a brilliant student leader ended badly. A flame of youth that burned her and pushed her to retreat into herself, into a loneliness that was only comforted by a comprehensive study of biology. Until she meets her future husband Davide: she works for a pharmaceutical company and he is a pediatrician at the hospital. The couple cannot have children and therefore decides to adopt. Chiara confesses to Alisha that, like many others, she was pressured to eliminate “the problem” (of the pregnancy), which the biological mother of the abandoned child had not done and should not be judged harshly for this very reason.

Each of the three parts into which the novel is divided contains pages of wisdom. Chiara talks to Alisha about the Sanskrit term Samdhyathat describes the meeting of opposites, the moment when the darkness of night meets the light of day: In a sense, it is the same human condition that often hovers in the ambiguity of twilight, the starting point for a primal path. Lo helps us with that Shivasankalpathe gift of grace that comes to our aid when we face the wall of the most difficult challenges.

When Chiara finally decides to adopt, she becomes pregnant with Ginevra, who has the name of a queen and is the opposite of Alisha. While he accepts everything as a gift, the sister believes that everything is thanks to her. More than with her mother, she is linked to her maternal grandparents, rather scrawny upper-class people who were not a role model for Chiara, who managed to get kicked out of the Poggio Imperiale College in Florence and refused to enroll in law school in order to do so to inherit her father’s studio. , married a doctor, yes, but from a humble background. Ginevra, on the other hand, loves family portraits that describe you Size decayed, she is attracted to material values, she is always attached to her cell phone. The opposite of her mother, who writes to her: perhaps we are similar precisely because of the art of hiding and denying our origins. Everyone must be free to go their own way.

Finally, there is the letter to Davide, the pediatrician husband, who is defined as “the Lego man”, the man who builds: although he did not grow up in a house with bookshelves full of classics like his wife, but in one simple family in a small town of Molise, he has a moral stature and a wealth of spiritual values, which he passes on to his wife. It is he who brings her closer to religion by forcing her to have a church wedding, made possible by an episcopal dispensation because the future bride was not baptized. He will be with the last born Elijah, who will be given the name of the prophet who knows how to distinguish good from evil. The double baptism is celebrated by Gianfranco, Davide’s cousin, who after a wild youth became a Benedictine monk thanks to the teachings of Charles de Foucauld, the French religious missionary in the land of the Tuareg. “God loves rebels,” said the Viscount, who became a missionary. To conquer the faith we do not need acts of conformism, but acts of rebellion and original ways. Like that of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century girl who entered a monastery and wrote indelible pages on botany, medicine, astronomy, medicine and music. She was born in the Dark Ages, in a world where women were suffocated. It is the opportunity to build your own original destiny the true message of this book, because “the wind blows where it wills”.

From October 6th in bookstores and at kiosks

Susanna Tamaro’s new novel “The wind blows wherever it wants” will be published on October 6th by Solferino (p. 238, in bookstores €17, at the kiosk in the “Corriere della Sera” €15 plus the usual newspaper price).

The 30 years of “Go where your heart leads you” and the competition

It was 1994 and at that time Baldini&Castoldi published what would become an extraordinary editorial case: “Go where your heart leads you” by Susanna Tamaro. Thirty years later and while the novel that collects his legacy, “The Wind Blows Where It Will,” is published, Solferino is publishing it in a new edition (p. 186, in bookstores €15, at kiosks €13 plus price) . from “courier”). And there is a competition associated with the book that invites readers to write their “letter from the heart”. You have until October 9th to upload the letters and vote on them. The jury will then select three winners who will be awarded at BookCity Milan (from November 15th to 19th) in the presence of Susanna Tamaro. Complete regulation WHO.

The meeting in Padua

Thursday, October 5th, Susanna Tamaro presents “The wind blows where it wants” in Padua on the occasion of the World Fair 2023 (7 p.m., Padova Fiere, Pavilion 11, Room A). Dialogue with the author Nicolò Menniti-Ippolito.