Malinverno

There are villages where books are in the air, the words of novels and poems belong to everyone, and the names of newborns suggest dreams. Such a village has been Timpamara, ever since many years ago the oldest paper mill of the region was set up there, to which the mill was added shortly afterwards. Librarian to that village was Astolfo Malinverno, until, one fine morning, the town clerk abruptly informs him that he will also be taking up the position of caretaker at the cemetery. A reader with an active imagination, Astolfo mingles stories from novels with those of villagers, strangers, library users and cemetery visitors, the living and the dead. What really interests him, however, is one with no name, no date—only the photograph of a woman whose eyes meet his candidly, her skin pale, her hair in two smooth ribbons. She is instantly his Emma Bovary. It is this mystery, enclosed in that face, which attracts Astolfo to follow the thread that seems to unravel from the photograph to experience at first hand a story he could never have imagined.
Domenico Dara combines oral storytellers with writing suspended in time: Malinverno is a very fascinating novel on the strength of books, stories, imagination, and love.