Alessandro D’Avenia’s novel Dove finiscono gli anni went on sale in Italy on November 3. With permission from Mondadori, an excerpt from the book has been published, introducing its protagonist, 17-year-old Leone Pardi.
Set in the 1990s, Leone is in his fourth year of high school when he is drawn into a mystery that starts with an inscription on a bathroom wall at school and extends into his adult years.
The excerpt finds Leone alone on a cliff beside the sea, reflecting on a sense of longing he describes as a hunger of the heart. He admits that he is afraid and recalls a story his mother told him as a child about a mermaid seeking love on land so she would gain a soul and eternal life.
The memory leads Leone to think about love, loss and the pain of being unable to cry. The passage closes with him seeking comfort by the sea, where, as a child, a shell had been enough to make him believe he could hear the whole ocean.
Sources: ANSA Cultura. ANSA Cultura.