Paradiso

Italy, 1940s. Graziella Ponti is seven years old, living in a tiny village in northern Italy. The family struggles to make ends meet, but they are quite happy, and despite the hardships and misfortunes, Graziella lives with a full sense of security. However, the war, which initially touched rural Lombardy only slightly, eventually invades the village of Pieve Santa Clara. From this moment on, Graziella's former life will be shattered and a new one begins, filled with fear, loss, hope, and rebirth...
«Paradiso» — the first part of a trilogy about Graziella and her home, an ancient farmhouse
«Paradiso», as well as about Italy — a country teetering on the brink of great changes. Fascist dictatorship; the restrictions imposed on life by the traditions of the Catholic Church; peasant psychology — all of this is about to fade into the past, and Graziella will become not only a witness but also a participant in the changes that are rapidly approaching patriarchal Italy.
«Paradiso» is inspired by real stories that the writer's Italian family told her, and the action of the book takes place in the places where she spent much of her childhood.
This is a very traditional, even slightly old-fashioned novel about childhood, growing up, love, about the magic of Italy, about how both terrifying and beautiful the world that surrounds us is.