Mattia is eight years old in Spring 2020, when the world shuts itself at home because of a virus. In the distant future when he is telling this story, his perspective becomes once again that of a child as he recalls the salient moments of that epoch-making lockdown, remembering what it meant for his family.

An intense, empathic story set during the latest months.

Andrei, Mattia’s dad, comes to Milan because the following day, 10 March, he and Mattia’s mum are getting divorced. It’s a shame that the evening news on television informs him and his family that not only the courts but the entire country are going to be closed. Instead of running away to his new girlfriend in Rome, Andrei decides to stay in Milan so he can be closer to his son. However, Mattia wants none of this father who abandoned him when he was three years old; as a matter of fact, he hates him. In spite of himself, the boy starts living in the microcosm of his everyday life turned upside down, with school downsized to a computer, neighbours singing from their balconies and a father he hates locked in with him. Among mysteries to be solved and surprises around the corner, the lockdown becomes for Mattia partly an opportunity to take a close look at things and realise that perhaps growing up also means trusting other people, even your worst enemies.

From their homes, twenty-six of the most prominent writers in the Italian landscape have given a meaning to these days by choosing to tackle this emergency also with the weapons of literature.

R. Armeni, S. Auci, A. Basso, B. Bellomo, G. Biondillo, C. Bonvicini, F. Bosco, M. Buticchi, C. Caboni, D. Carrisi, A. Dalton, G. Festa, A. Frontani, E. Galiano, A. Gazzola, E. Gnone, M. Gramellini, J. Lahiri, F. Noiville, C. Sánchez, G. Sundas, S. Truzzi, I. Tuti, H. Tuzzi, M. Vichi, A. Vitali.

Nowadays, fear has a new name: Covid-19. The only way to defeat it is to stay at home.  Within the four walls that have always shielded us but which have now become impassable boundaries.

They have become almost an enemy.

And yet, day after day, those who always work with words have discovered that rooms, windows, and even the remotest corners of their homes are wings to carry them out into the world. Every one of them has therefore chosen a way to give life to this magic.

From their homes, twenty-six of the most prominent writers in the Italian landscape have given a meaning to these days by choosing to tackle this emergency also with the weapons of literature.

So as to take their daily lives to the readers who love them.

And they decided to do this together with the publishing house Garzanti by donating all the proceeds to the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo.

Some decided to write about their days, their established routines, about novelties that make you smile. About the tears they cannot stop but also about the force of nature that dissolves the lump in your throat. About forced cohabitation, as well the distancing from people who are dear to you, that feels unbearable. Others write about neighbours who were once strangers but are no longer so, and work that has changed its tools but not its substance. Some admit their error in thinking that it could not all be true or else lend a voice to animals who, on the contrary, are glad this is all true. Others entrust their thoughts about these strange days to beloved characters they have created. Everyone is certain that we will emerge from this more aware of what is truly important, and we will meet, hug, and soon take walks all together. They are certain that solidarity will be the currency we will carry with us and no longer be able to do without.

They are all convinced that words, books and stories bring us together. They create invisible links that break all barriers. When we read we are never alone. And we are strong. And everything appears as it will be. Because all shall be well.

“But that’s exactly what your job is, guardian angel: help her to navigate the narrow path that descends from the head to the guts and rises again from the guts all the way to the heart.”

“There is only one way to overcome pain, Gio’. Accept it and move on. An act of faith in life is required. The reward will be a treasure island: the discovery of an unknown part of one’s inner self.”

Gioconda, known as Giò, is thirty-five years old with a complicated family background behind her, a soul troubled by vocation, or perhaps by necessity, and just one great love: Leonardo – who has abandoned her.
Lost and despairing, she finds herself living at her grandparents’ house. They died within a few days of each other, a symbol of a perfect love, able to make passion triumph over the passing of time: just what Giò’s marriage lacked. On the night of Valentine’s Day, a celebration she’s always ignored, Giò finds a note written by her grandmother to her guardian angel, thanking it. With the despondency, but also the courage of someone with nothing to lose, Giò tries it: she writes to her angel as well. Incredibly, the angel replies and makes her a promise: I’ll watch over you.
Not only does the angel have an extremely strong personality, it also has a name, Filémone, and a story. Above all, it has the ability to understand Giò as she’s never understood herself, and to listen to her as she’s never listened to herself. So is born an intense, amusing, amused and moving exchange which also involves the people around Giò: the meticulous ex-husband, the bizarre mother, the friend caught in an extra-marital affair, and the boy who wants to join a commune.
This exchange doesn’t only examine Giò’s missing motives, but our own, as well. It encourages us to silence our heads and our instincts, in order to listen to our hearts. Especially when they are called to face difficult tests, like the one Giò is confronted with by her faithful Filémone, in a surprising finale which seems to confuse everything, when in fact it will make everything clear.

The story of a child, and the man he has become, who cannot overcome the greatest pain of all: the loss of his mother.

English Translation Available

Sometimes the truth can be a difficult companion. Sometimes, rather than face the truth, we prefer to dwell in resentment and the uncertainties of a fragile life. It has taken the protagonist forty years to open that envelope, forty years to find the courage to start living again. That is the first step to grow up and to accept life without the most important support of all: his mother’s. A series of episodes, some dramatic, some ironic or funny, reveal the deepest meaning of the relentless struggle the protagonist undertakes against his sense of loneliness, of inadequacy and of neglect. Love and a full, authentic life, are the rewards awaiting him.
Fai bei sogni is a novel about truth and the fear of truth; it is a story that shows how we need to accept pain and to leave behind the fear and diffidence which limit our life. A moving story, capable of talking about universal feelings while touching an intimate chord in anyone’s heart.