An Italian Obsession

As you read these lines, you may perhaps think back to a time when you felt that your world was falling to pieces. A time when your parents made you miserable "for your own good"; Perhaps you ached for somebody and they stood in your way.

Would you believe me if I said that I had loved her since the day I saw her at school, in fifth grade? It sounds crazy, I know, but it’s true. I have tried so much to let her go, but I can’t. I simply can’t. They can send me away, they can try to break my spirit, but they can never make me stop.

The separation, the mourning, the guilt, everything I’ve done . . . nothing matters now, if I can see her, touch her. But she has changed so much, and so have I . . .

Roberto never really got over the crush he had on Alessandra in school and when, years later, they meet again and fall in love, tragedy strikes and all seems lost. After a long separation Roberto finally reconnects with Alessandra and has a chance to win her back, but a dark secret from his past threatens to come back to haunt him. With the police, who have taken a belated interest in past events, and Roberto's romantic relation with Alessandra's roommate, which complicates everything, will he be able to keep his life from taking another bad turn?

This coming-of-age novel is set in postwar Europe, with social realism that will transport you back to the 1970's. That was a time when young people had a devil-may-care attitude and faced the same problems youth of the current generation does - sex, drugs, and same sex set-up.