Broken Lives, Dreams Denied

Francesca Maria Benvenuti, “L’amore assaje” Mondadori

In Naples, a 20-year-old boy was shot and killed in the neighborhood where our monastery, Santa Maria in Gerusalemme, known as “The 33”, is located. We knew him as a child, when his mother used to bring him to church and to the “ruota” (the place in the convent for donations and help). His life could have taken a different path, like that of many other young people who grow up in precarious circumstances but long for something more; to escape a routine made up of broken promises and never enough resources.

In the book, we hear the voice of Zeno, a fifteen-year-old from Forcella in the 1990s. This is the most working-class district in the city’s historic center. Zeno, in my view, manages to express how these boys, who were capable of violent acts, are still children who simply lacked ammore assaje, which means a deep, overwhelming love.

The pages are the result of a pact between Zeno, who is in prison for killing a boy from a rival gang, and his Italian teacher. They tell us about his childhood, about the laughter and kisses of his beloved Natalina, and about life behind bars. They reveal his hopes and fears. Perhaps even our young neighbor could have recounted his dream to fly, in his beautiful Napo-Italian, even if only with battered wings.

#sistersproject