But memory is sweet

Two lives, two prisoners, a single thread uniting them: memory.

After the armistice of September 8, 1943, the Marche countryside became a refuge and the silent theater of unexpected alliances. Through the pages of a meticulous narrative, the fates of two World War II prisoners intertwine: a fleeing British soldier welcomed by peasants and an Italian artilleryman deported to German concentration camps. Two parallel destinies, narrated through family sources, letters, and unpublished diaries, intertwine in a novel that combines historical reconstruction and emotional intensity. At the heart of the story are rural solidarity with enemies, the dignified resistance of Italian military internees, and the daily life of a rural civilization overwhelmed by war and then erased by modernity. A novel that restores voice and dignity to those who lived through the war away from the spotlight, yet at the center of history.

"You don't know how much it pleases me to know that everyone remembers me. It touches my heart, and I feel tears in my eyes. How happy I was with such sincere people. Well, that's life, and the road is hard."

Federica Sargolini (1972) teaches History and Philosophy at the "G. Galilei" Scientific High School in Macerata. A pianist and PhD in History of Science, she has focused her studies on the relationship between Science and Music during the 17th-century scientific revolution. An avid reader, she has always cultivated a love for stories that give voice to the past, intertwining in her writing the rigor of research with the evocative power of memory.