How many times have we heard that “nothing lasts forever!”. But does it also apply to first love? Does it also apply when you're 14 and you fall in love – and it's the first time in your life – with a boy capable of revolutionizing your existence? These are the questions that Filomena will find an answer to when, during the summer, she returns to the sea to spend the holidays in the house that belonged to her grandmother, who is now gone. Here he would like to stop time. He struggles to accept the loss of a loved one, he lives with the handbrake on. However, life is stronger and the meeting with Damiano changes everything: Damiano creates havoc inside her and… she has no shadow! While the mystery linked to the boy gradually reveals itself, Filomena's certainties waver: perhaps only by accepting that everything passes can one truly experience eternal moments.
Engaging and exciting "The boy without a shadow" (Il Castoro, 2023, euro 15.50, pp. 192. Also Ebook) represents the debut in the world of the novel for Lucia Stipari to whom we ask where the inspiration for a book in which love is something magical, mysterious, indispensable even when it appears risky: «Everything started from the curiosity for the word "contrara". Half of my family has Neapolitan origins and in Southern Italy they call contrara a special moment of the day, the one in which one behaves on the contrary, precisely, as if it were night: one does not work, one closes the shutters, one rests. It's because it's too hot, but not just because of that. Since ancient times, this is the hour of wonders and apparitions. It's time for mysterious and seductive divinities like Pan, nymphs and sirens. It's a magical, suspended, dazzled hour. And it's very special."
What's so special about it?
«When clocks didn't exist, it was the only moment of the day that could be clearly identified, looking at the position of the sun, exactly in the middle of the sky. The ancients believed that the shadow was connected to the soul, and therefore the shorter one became, the more the other weakened, becoming vulnerable and exposed to the supernatural. Thus midday, when the shadows almost disappear, was the threshold through which the unknown and the fantastic could enter our lives. From this threshold I let in a story that could be defined as magical realism. It is clearly a love story, because the counter hour is an hour of enchantment and seduction, and because love is the most fantastic of adventures».
Filomena, the protagonist, however, does not seem so much in the mood for adventures. Indeed, it seems to live with the handbrake on. Why?
«Filo is an introverted and insecure girl who doesn't like herself much. She is afraid of life and therefore afraid of changes, but she has just had to experience the most irrevocable of all, death, because she has lost her grandmother. She couldn't even say goodbye to her before she died, and she blames her mother for that. He wishes he could go back and he wishes everything stayed put, not just to get his grandmother back, but to avoid getting hurt, in general. If you stand still, nothing happens to you. But, precisely, this is sometimes the worst of evils. And Filo will have to learn to let go and jump».
How would you define Damiano?
«Damiano is a demon, he is as Plato described Eros: an intermediate deity, who acts as a link between men and the gods. And in fact that is her role in the book, she takes Filomena and takes her away from what she knows, out of herself, towards the other. It's what happens when you fall in love, and it's kind of crazy, but very wise. Damiano then has all the characteristics to make Filo fall in love: the first is that he is impregnable. Love feeds on mystery and shuns any idea of possession. This is something that Filo will have to understand: selfishness, possession and love don't get along, indeed they are really incompatible».
Is it really possible to live fully only by accepting that everything passes?
"I think so. I find it hard to accept it myself; death, which is as natural as life, represents the greatest scandal. But it is also what gives life meaning, because if we were eternal every moment would be the same as the next and we would have no reason to try to be happy. The fullness of life is like the breath, going in and out. It is vital because it flows, leaves and leaves room for another breath. So every breath becomes important».
What was it like writing your first novel?
«A beautiful effort, exciting and surprising. It is a journey that allows you to learn a lot, even about yourself».
