Winner of Procida Isola d'Arturo Elsa Morante Prize

With an innate yet unexpected understanding of the written word for someone so young, Francesco Mila (1996) tells a story of affection and protection. It is the story of a family reminiscent of ‘Aracoeli’ by Elsa Morante, and perfectly expresses the desire for love and the fear of embarrassment experienced by every teenager.

Maybe, at some point, Lapo and Emma’s parents were happy together. But if that time ever existed, Lapo was too young to remember it, and Emma had not yet been born. It was a time when Lucrezia, their mother, who was obsessed with Hollywood actors, wouldn’t continuously disappear from their lives; a time when their father Gioacchino, a doctor, didn’t lock himself away in his silence.

Between Rome, Calabria, and their house on the lake; between cheating and abandonment, accompanied by reading “Peanuts” and inventing faraway worlds in which to barricade themselves, the Callipo siblings grow up, their lives teetering on the edge of destruction. They create fantasy worlds in which Emma is free simply to be Piperita, bride to Prince Arturo: an adventurous girl surrounded by friends, with an ironic sense of humour. The passing years do not make home life any easier, and in addition to the usual teenage problems and Emma’s lack of appetite, she is forced to grow up.

When he is sixteen years old, thanks to his friend Amedeo – who is more laidback and experienced than him – Lapo meets Greta. With her, he discovers sex and love. Even Emma (who had long shed any trace of Piperita) grows close to Greta. But neither of the siblings have the courage to talk about their pain, although Greta seems – in her own way – part of their ‘brotherhood of abandonment’. So when Lucrezia leaves the family home once again, as if she had been held captive, the situation worsens. It is their sibling bond which once again saves Lapo and Emma: only together will they be able to understand that the blame and responsibility for their lack of affection is much harder to attribute than they had first imagined.