(ANSA) - ROME, NOVEMBER 08 - LIA LEVI, FROM PLANT TO SMILE (PIEMME - THE STEAM BOAT, PP. 80, EURO 14).
At the age of 12 Lia Levi wrote a short novel found by chance by the author in a drawer, on April 25, 2021, hidden in the folds of a diary of her mother. The story, in twenty-five sheets of yellowed paper, set in the period of the racial-fascist laws and the Nazi occupation, can be considered the first book by the writer who in 2018 won the Premio Strega Giovani with 'Tonight is already tomorrow' (Edizioni E / O) .
Remained unpublished for 77 years, the precious document arrives in the library on the occasion of Lia Levi's 90th birthday, on November 9th, published by Piemme-Il Battello a Vapore, with the original title 'From cry to smile'. Inside the work, which is not autobiographical, is the anastatic reproduction of the original manuscript with an imaginary dialogue between the writer of today and the one of yesterday and delicate illustrations by Carla Manea.
The protagonist is a Jewish family that is not that of the writer. The characters are invented: there are a mother and a father, there is Marcella, the judicious eldest daughter and the little brother Bobi, who is quite the opposite.
The manuscript, when it was found, already had a title: 'From weeping to a smile' and written underneath, in small print, 'Brevestoria of nine months of German domination'. Despite the very young age of its author, the text has a plot by the right and almost expert knots and was written by Levi, who finished it at 13, to give a anniversary gift to her parents in a moment of newly found serenity.
Born in Pisa on November 9, 1931, Levi, who lives in Rome, as a child lived the experience of the persecutions against the Jews, first with the fascist racial laws, then with the occupation of the Germans in Italy and was saved, together with her sisters, finding refuge in a boarding school of nuns.
At the end of the war he continued his studies until he graduated in Philosophy.
She is the author of novels for adults and children including 'The Day of Remembrance told to my grandchildren', released in January 2021. (ANSA).