1937. The Basque village of Durango, Spain.

A tragic and little known moment of recent history through the eyes of Tommaso, a twelve-year-old Italian boy who arrived in Biscay with his parents engaged, along with men and women of fifty-three different nations, to fight against the Francoist army and for freedom.

Despite the civil war, Tommaso lives the experiences and doubts with the intensity of his age. He forms a strong friendship with Susa, a free and rebellious Spanish girl who makes him love Garcia Lorca, readings, nature, animals. A tree becomes their refuge.

On March 31, on a quiet market day, black silhouettes of aircraft appear in the sky of Durango. No one can imagine what is going to happen.

The first carpet bombing of civilians in the history of human wars took place in Durango,

a few weeks before that of Guernica, made famous by Picasso’s painting.

It was the Italian fascist aviation of the time that executed this bombing.

This emblematic page of history, often forgotten, especially in Italy, deserves to be remembered, even with this novel. In this fiction book, stories and characters of creations created by the author move in a real and well-documented historical context. The well-defined historical setting offers many insights without removing space from the taste of a narration. The reader finds reasons to become attached to the various characters. A novel for kids that can also be enjoyed by adults.