Alessandro used to be considered a genius when he was younger. Then school started and his mother started realizing that he is bright but probably not a genius. This could have been the story of any precocious child with an overbearing mother who thinks her son is the best one and noone is better in anything. Except that this specific family happened to live in Genoa, Italy in the mid 1930s. And the family was Jewish.

The mother had been born and raised in Genoa and her whole family is in the area - providing Alessandro with a grandfather and numerous uncles, aunts and cousins. She believes that she is safe in Genoa and that nothing bad can happen to her at home. The father is a British citizen who had always thought that one day he is going to go back - except that the wife is not really interested in leaving her home so he never did.

And then Italy slowly starts changing the rules - the race laws come into effect and being Jewish becomes a problem. And yet, the family stays - the mother is not ready to admit that she must go and as she makes the decision at home, they all stay. The city is flooded with refugees from Austria and Germany and yet they stay - because it will never happen to them, not in Genoa. When the war really starts, the father ends up being branded as an enemy - that British passport which he always considered his Plan B ends up being less than useless - too late to use it to flee, now it ends up getting him sent to the middle of nowhere in the country (better than a camp I guess). And the rules keep changing.

The novel ends on what seems to be a cliffhanger - but only on the surface. The story which the author set out to tell is told - the story of a family which could not believe that things will go that bad, a family who believed in their own city and country and who ended up losing all in the process. In the next few years a lot more families will lose a lot more but this is a story for another place.

It is a story about how slowly changes happen sometimes and how clinging to the familiar can harm you. Reading the novel you want to shake the mother and tell her to run. And yet, the reality is that noone knew what was coming and even when people thought they knew, they still believed they were safe where they were.

Tucked at the end of the novel is a note by the author that the novel is based on real life events - those of her husband's family, complete with a photocopy of his documentation at the border.

If you are looking for heroics, that is not the novel for you. It is a slow (except for the end of course), almost meditative novel about a family, a place and a time. It sounds almost banal - it could have been any family. But then this is part of the point - it was just another family - which got luckier than most.

The novel won the 2018 Strega Giovani award (the youth/YA version of Premio Strega - the biggest Italian award; this one is awarded by a jury of over a thousand upper secondary school students who get to read the 12 nominated books and vote for the best/their favorite).

Not a perfect novel and most of the characters are nowhere near likeable. And yes, the story is believable, even before you find that author's note. How much of the story is reality and how much invention is unclear but it works as is. ( )

Buona l'idea, credibili i personaggi e la storia. Ma è la scrittura che proprio non va, troppe virgole punti, la lettura viene interrotta continuamente si procede a strappi, totalmente mancanti le descrizioni dei luoghi, quartieri, le classi della scuola, i mobili delle case i vestiti eccetera. Un sei stiracchiato. ( )

Col fiato sospeso fino alla fine.
Non è mia abitudine leggere casi o premi letterari nel momento in cui si producono ma per puro caso, e nella totale ignoranza degli eventi, sono incappata in questo quasi "a caldo" (per lo meno per i miei tempi). Ho letto in giro brutte critiche, forse per mero amor di polemica. A me il libro è piaciuto e vi ho trovato, ma questo i commentatori più preparati lo segnalano da almeno un decennio, disperanti analogie con la situazione attuale di persone perseguitate, discriminate, umiliate, tradite, ingannate e vendute.
I paladini del "prima gli tttaliani" che oggi additano lo "straniero" quale attentatore della sicurezza nazionale e ladro della felicità della nazione magari sono pure i discendenti degli italianissimi passatori che truffavano e derubavano di beni e vita i disperati che tentavano di espatriare. Quanti leghisti attuali dovranno la fortuna di avere un orticello da proteggere da supposti assalti alle azioni di nonni e bisnonni scafisti? Quanti sovranisti discendono da spie e delatori? Segreti di famiglia ben custoditi e di sicuro non tramandati alle generazioni successive. A volte penso che un giretto all'Archivio di Stato dovremmo farcelo tutti, noi italiani "brava gente".