In the war-torn Italy come together four lives, each with a
past, a personal loss, unsure of what the future holds, but all of them holding
on to their memories, trying to make peace with their present.
As every new character is introduced in the story, his life,
his hopes, his past, his home and his dreams are unravelled meticulously and
diligently by the author. Every shade of his emotions and reactions, his
thoughts and expressions, are picked up and gently added to the canvas of that
character. The author paints the characters just as beautifully as he paints
the Italian villa they all live in.
Past, present, memory, history, conversations, bombs, war,
pain, suffering, landscapes, weather, chapels and villas all come together to
in this mesmerizing and sensual story.
The physical and emotional transformation a war brings about
in its survivors, the feelings of despair and melancholy and the burden of
personal loss are a constant presence in the book. The characters are as torn
and broken as the war-ravaged villa. Their lives resemble the shattered pieces
of the walls; their souls damaged like wall-less rooms and roof-less walls. But
they are survivors, just like the villa standing tall against rain and wind.
The change in the villa’s grandeur, now reminiscent only
through the decorative paintings and huge library, is visible to the naked eye
and easy to describe in words. But the change its dwellers is far more complex.
Yet, this complexity is broken down and transformed into a vast bed of blue sea,
where the author takes you by your hand and ushers you slowly into the ocean.
With each step, every turn of the page, you immerse yourself a little more into
the waters and into the minds of the characters. As the waves gently touch your
feet, you find yourself diving deeper into the tangled lives and you are
enthralled by the vastness of the ocean.
Even if the book were 100 or 200 pages more, I could still
go on reading. It’s a journey I would never get tired of, eager to explore the
depths of the ocean even further. It is also a journey one must definitely
take, slowly and gently, with absolutely no hurry.
