Two beginnings ~ then and now

Then

Giuseppe, 1917.   Mornings were steel-edged now, water on the village font ice-crisp.  Instead of clear blue skies, tatters of cloud stuck fast between firs on the mountain slopes and leaves on the beech trees dropped yellow and rust to the forest floor.  Some days our village floated upon a sea of clouds, forming an island, heralding the separation from the rest of the world that winter would bring.

Now

Francesco peered at his son over the top of his newspaper, the Corriere della Sera.  Davide was flat on his back on the stone floor of their converted stable, La Stalla, bouncing a tennis ball off the beams of the large sitting room.

"Davi, I'm only going to ask you once more to stop that, or there'll be trouble.  You're going to break something."

A Tuscan Memory ~ by Angela Petch, 2020, fiction (Italy), 272 pages

Italy, 1923.  In a tiny hamlet nestled in the Tuscan mountains, farmers gather after a hard day in the meadows, and children’s laughter rings across the square:  but one little boy does not join in their play.  Behind his deep brown eyes hides a heartbreaking secret.

Ninety years later.  When elderly Giselda Chiozzi discovers a lost little boy, curled up asleep in the beech forest outside her grand but empty home, she can’t help but take pity on him.  It’s been a long time since she had a visitor.  Waking up to her kind smile and the warming smell of Italian hot chocolate, Davide soon blurts out what drove him into the cold Tuscan night:  how he’s different from everyone else, he’s never belonged anywhere, and now his beloved mother is ill.

Giselda promises to help Davide trace his family history – she knows better than anyone that connecting with your roots can ground you in the present – and hopes it will make Davide realize that home is where he truly belongs.  Together the unlikely pair discover the story of Davide’s great-grandfather, Giuseppe Starnucci, a young boy who spent his days milking cows, helping with the harvest, and hammering horseshoes in the forge.  But after a terrible incident that changed his life forever, Giuseppe also ran away.

David is overjoyed to find a connection with someone from his family at long last, but when Giselda uncovers the shocking reason why little Giuseppe fled to start a new life, she has an impossible decision to make.  Telling Davide the truth about his great-grandfather could persuade him to go back home where he belongs.  But could it also tear the family apart?  All Giselda knows is that she must save this lost boy before her own time runs out and he is left alone for good.

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