What it means to be a son and a daughter

Rosella Postorino, Mi limitavo ad amare te [I Just Loved You], Feltrinelli 2023

After reading and loving Le assaggiatrici [The Tasters], I was curious to read Rosella Postorino’s new book. This book recounts the Bosnian war from 20 years ago, which we hoped would remain an isolated episode in our Europe, but instead it was not.

Based on a true story, but one that I believe is unknown to many, which speaks of Bosnian Serb children rescued from the war and brought to reception facilities in Italy. Orphaned or not these children who, after several years, due to events not yet well clarified, in many cases end up being adopted in Italy. The author recounts the experiences of these sons and daughters, particularly Omar, Nada and Danilo, who grew up quickly and learned to put up with everything too soon.  It is a book about being a son and daughter, which is the primary condition with which one is in the world. In fact you can choose to be a father or mother but not a son or daughter with all the consequences that come with it, in this case traumatic ones.

A bit crass, in my opinion, is the narrative of the Catholic presence in its various expressions (but I am used to this view in fiction). I have experience that it is also very different and much more besides.

Rosa Lupoli is a Capuchin nun in Naples, abbess of the Santa Maria in Gerusalemme monastery known as the Trentatrè, founded by Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo