(by Marzia Apice) (ANSA) - ROME, 02 JUL - FRANCESCA BELLINO / GIANLUCA BUTTOLO, DALIL (Barometz, pp. 32, 24 euro. Translations by Simone Sibilio).
A child and an ibis flying over the Palmyra desert, to rediscover, imagining it together, the main road, embracing the hope so as not to get lost again: the story of "Dalil", the book for young people, is entrusted to small, intense atmospheres. readers (and for adult dreamers) written by Francesca Bellino and illustrated by Gianluca Buttolo, published by Barometz and available from 2 July. Designed to celebrate Syria, with its past and its sacredness, 10 years after the beginning of the war that tormented it, the book tells the story of a friendship brought from the desert as an unexpected gift, that between Sadiq ( which in Arabic means' friend '), a child left alone among the endless sand dunes and unable to find the north in a horizon that is always the same, and Dalil (which can be translated as'guide '), an ibis, a bird once considered sacred, depicted by the Egyptians in the head of Thoth, whose species was exterminated by men. Both left alone, the two begin a fantastic journey together, flying above all pain, all violence, all fear, seeking solace in their friendship and in the fabulous worlds of the imagination. Dalil, with its large black wings and its elegance in flying, will be an opportunity for little Sadiq to discover incredible places and objects, among the ruins of forgotten cities and the precious pieces of a small treasure from distant times, made of a handful of buttons, colored glass and scraps of precious fabrics. Among the things kept by the wise ibis, there is also a white scarf that the bird will give to his new friend, to make him feel safe.But the greatest gift will come after a restful night: at the first light of the morning, with a long, adventurous, acrobatic flight in the blue of the sky, Dalil will take Sadiq where the child has dreamed of going, towards a north in which to look for a new way to go. "I had my shadow and a journey to go on.
I looked at my footprints in the sand. I was no longer lost ", says the child, thus starting another story to be built, looking in vain for his friend Dalil, who has already flown away. Dreamlike and delicate, with shaded colored illustrations that make the mind, the book - enriched at the end also by a small dictionary to orient oneself in the desert, whose translation is edited by Simone Sibilio - in a few pages pays homage to Syrian culture, and also to the evocative, immense desert of the historic city of Palmyra, wounded from the war, which is the background to this great little story of friendship. (ANSA).
