[Italian Books] Resto qui by Marco Balzano, The Story of A Woman and Her Family Set in The Long-gone Village of Curon, South Tyrol

It all began with a Netflix Tv show, a series titled Curon. 

When Netflix announced this new Tv show, here in Italy, many online magazines and websites started writing about the history of Curon, a village that was drowned on purpose to create a reservoir, which was built right after the end of World War II to produce electricity through hydro-electric power.

If you can read Italian, here is a very interesting article that tells the story of this village whose remains are now just a fascinating bell tower emerging from a lake. I wonder how many of those people who go there to take a shot of the lake realize how much sadness and hardship lie below those waters.

Basically, the former village of Curon was situated over the area where Lake Resia, the object of many Instagram pictures, now lies. The inhabitants did everything they could to avoid the village being destroyed, they even turned to the Pope for help, but it was all in vain because the village was flooded and re-sited further north.

The story of Curon is a sad story not only because a village was destroyed and its inhabitants were forced to relocate somewhere else – many people decided to build a new life far from Curon – but mainly because it tells the story of the exercise of supremacy and power by the government over simple, common people.

The inhabitants were mainly farmers who couldn’t speak a word of Italian – South Tyrol was part of Austria until 1919  – and were ill-educated and the company in charge of building the reservoir took advantage of it. They used Italian for their communications and constantly exerted their position of power over the people living in Curon, so much so that they never got a proper compensation for the loss of their houses.

The Netflix Tv show turned out to be one of the worst ever – I haven’t watched it, some friends and students have told me about that but all reviews are terrible, so I won’t bother watching it if I were you – but I am really happy they came out with this series because it gave me the chance of learning more about this event and of reading a book I had meant to read for a while.

The book I am referring to is Resto qui by Marco Balzano and it can be included in my Italian books section because it also has an English version – I always make sure to include books that have an English translation too, so that people who are interested in Italian literature but can’t read the Italian language may take advantage of the book recommendation too.

Resto qui by Marco Balzano was published in 2018 and ranked second in the prestigious Premio Strega, the most important Italian literary competition. It can be found in English as I’m Staying Here (it is also available as an e-book). If you want to read it in Italian though, I would say that it is not a very difficult read, so if you are confident with Italian books, I would definitely give it a go.

As you may imagine, the book tells the story of Curon. Actually, what happened in Curon is only the backdrop of the real story of the book: the life of Trina. In 1920, Trina is a young girl who dreams of becoming a teacher but her dreams are shattered when Mussolini comes to power and abolishes the use of German as a teaching language.

She then builds another life for herself, falls in love, and creates a family. History, though, puts her in front of very tough decisions, like the “Great Option” in 1939, when communities in South Tyrol were invited to join the Reich and leave Italy: Trina and her family decide to stay but are seen as traitors and spies by the Germans and even by their community and have a very hard time.

The story goes on and tells the hardship of war and of having to build a new life again afterwards, while facing the terrible event of the village being destroyed and its inhabitants forced to find another place to live. The plot is simple but it’s the backdrop that is full of meaning and poses a lot of questions even to us nowadays: the rise of fascism, the treatment of minorities, the importance of progress against values and traditions, globalization against local identity.

I have really enjoyed this book because it tells a very absorbing story, that of Trina and her family, set against the big events of history. I love this kind of books because they give me the chance of learning more about a certain historical event or period of time, while being deeply engaged in the plot and the characters. This book reminded me a lot of Eva Dorme, another compelling tale of a woman that also is an opportunity of exploring an important chapter of Italian history.

By the way, what Italian books have you read recently? Something good? I’d love to know!

{If you want to know more about Curon and its story, I recommend you this video with an interview with Marco Balzano and some of the inhabitants of Curon].

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