Set in a village in Central Italy, this tale of how the murder of young women some 20 years before affects the lives of everyone in the community, and in particular the one survivor of the assault and her best friend, now a physiotherapist coping with separation from her husband and alienation from her children. Complex and dark, it looks at the residual effects of a heinous crime and the suspicions that persist in a tight-knit, old-fashioned village where gossip is as current as the daily news.
The situation is complicated by an aggressive developer who wants to build a resort on the site of the murders. Guilt, anguish, and self-doubt plague Lucia, daughter of the man who ran a campsite for hikers that became a no-mans-land of desertion after two young women were brutally slain and sexually assaulted. The young woman who decided, on the fatal day to remain in her tent and so avoided a similar fate is now a damaged tragic figure who is Lucia’s best friend from childhood. The fact that Lucia chose upon the day of the crime to spend her time elsewhere and thus “dodge the bullet” causes her to suffer survivor’s guilt, the penance from which she cannot divest herself.
A counterplay between those who want the proposed changes to go ahead resulting in a financial gain for the owners of the haunted property and those who would rather the whole thing be forgotten propels a quest to discover what really happened and, perhaps save a man possibly jailed wrongly for the crime. Dark and disturbing but fascinating, it is a story told deftly and with considerable feeling. The author, Winner of the 2024 Strega Prize and the 2024 Youth Strega Prize has produced a compelling tale with a relentless drive that will surely keep any reader of mysteries and psychological thrillers riveted to the page.
