It happened suddenly: a virus shocked the whole world and took away our freedom in an instant. Everything has changed, they told us to stay home and there we discovered how difficult it is to live together, to resist, to keep hope alive. After the fleeting euphoria of singing from our balconies, we discovered a collective fear that in some cases has become panic, terror. Our certainties have wavered and, together with the daily death toll, so have our hopes. The most advanced part of the world, the technological and scientific West, has suddenly become breakable and imperfect.

But not all evils come to harm: some teach us something. The epidemic has forced us within four walls, but in doing so it has allowed us to slow down and take a breath, to rediscover habits and dreams abandoned in a drawer during the frenzied daily race and, therefore, to get to know each other more. We have found that we are far less strong than we thought. We have found we are vulnerable. But it is precisely from this vulnerability that we must and can start again, accepting our weaknesses and our limitations, hoping that the virus has killed arrogance. The delusion of omnipotence that had clouded our minds, which had made us oblivious to climate change, pollution, economic and social inequalities, perhaps, has fallen forever.

In this book with an intense, poetic and meticulous prose, Paolo Crepet analyzes what happened during the months of lockdown and the slow restart, and what awaits us in a present still threatened by the virus. He focuses on the need for change, which for him means “not killing the hope of having a future other than the one we deserved.” Not just an essay, but also a journey within us, to find out what humanity must save and what changes are needed to safeguard our tomorrow.