Once again history at the service of the novel in the new book by Giovanni Grasso

“Lieutenant Giardina’s secret” is the story of a mangy girl looking for answers. Love triumphs in the heart of the young protagonist and in the homage to the deceased through letters, notes and diaries

Another unintentional hero is at the center of the new novel by Giovanni Grasso, “The secret of Lieutenant Giardina” (Rizzoli, 224 pp., 19 euros). He is an illiterate farmer who fights against the Austrians in the Great War and disappears leaving behind a mystery. Death as a villain or as a hero? Patriot of a noble war or deserter of an impossible war? Among his many talents, the press adviser to the President of the Republic, has that of weaving compelling novel plots starting from historical material with a high dramatic rate. Here we talk about honor and dignity, glory and a sense of justice, the memory of the nation and a sense of the tragic buried in the silence of families. Grasso combines truth and fiction, brute history and pure literature, fictionalizing the drama of the First World War and the impossible memory of those who fought for their country, but disappeared forgotten and without honours.