Elisa and Beatrice, two fourteen-year-old girls growing up in rural Italy, share one of those rare friendships that shape a lifetime. But an unexpected event tears them apart, and thirteen years later it seems neither of them has truly moved on from the other…
A remarkable novel about friendship, family, and relationships in the digital age.
“…Before she became known across the world… Beatrice was an ordinary girl — and she was my friend. In fact, she was the best, the only true friend I ever had…”
If someone were to ask Elisa exactly when their friendship began, she would not know how to answer. Perhaps it was the night Beatrice suddenly appeared before her on that beach, like a shooting star.
Or perhaps it happened later, the day they stole an outrageously expensive pair of jeans and sped away laughing wildly on a scooter. What Elisa could say with certainty was when their friendship ended — and that, even after thirteen years, the pain of it has never truly faded.
Determined to confront her past and herself, she decides to write down everything they lived through, because only words can capture the complexity of the experiences we keep buried deep inside us; only through storytelling, she believes, does life truly take shape.
Award-winning author Silvia Avallone tells the story of the boundless friendship between two girls, set against the backdrop of their families and society, their divisions, contrasts, and conflicts, in the early years of the emerging digital age at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
