by Renzo Modiano
On 16 October 1943, the German army tore 1,056 Jewish Italians from their homes, from their lives and loves, from their routine and familiar objects, and from their home city of Rome. The author of this book was not amongst them, because his father had prepared their flight.
He was a Jewish boy of seven on the run and moving from house to house. He would never again see Rachel, the little girl who sat next to him at school. He was a “lucky” one, but as his story unfolds, it becomes clear just how harsh, lonely and terrifying that relative “luck” turned out to be.
It took over sixty years for Renzo Modiano, a successful novelist, to write about this disturbing childhood experience.
Modiano writes, “What I went through at that time has taught me, more effectively than any preacher could have done, that no one should pass judgement on others on the basis of their origins, religion, class, politics, country of birth, or any other label that fate has attached to them. A meal of polenta spread on a table from which everyone eats has taught me that we must consider the rights of others as well as our own needs. Life has confirmed these intuitions, born of my experiences during those nine, very long months.”
On the 26th at 7pm at the Center for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
On the 27th at 6pm at the Italian Cultural Institute, 82 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh
Free event but booking essential: rsvp.iicedimburgo@esteri.it
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