Accabadora by Michela Murgia

Author:Michela Murgia [Murgia, Michela]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781619021334
Publisher: Counterpoint

The war that would later be known as the Great War had already earned its name, summoning from Soreni no less than three levies of men to the trenches of the Piave, and even so many had not been enough. Those discharged seriously wounded from the front brought back news of the heroism of the Sassari Brigade and, at the age of twenty, Bonaria had already seen enough of the world to know that the word “hero” was the masculine singular of the word “widow”. Even so, she liked to imagine herself a bride as she lay on the grass beneath the pines, breathing deeply the resinous perfume of the soil and pressing the curly head of Raffaele Zincu to her breast.

Raffaele was not strictly speaking handsome, though every woman of marriageable age in Soreni had dreamed of him as her husband. If the truth be told, some women who already had husbands dreamed of him too because, although there were richer or taller men, no-one at twenty had eyes of that sharp, mocking green that could pierce the eyes of others as if regardless of any price that might have to be paid later. Raffaele’s lower lip was as soft as a woman’s, and his wayward and sensual character could make girls blush even to speak to him. It meant nothing to Bonaria that the arrogant line of his jaw contained a warning that his passing fancies might not always have entirely innocent consequences. Ever since childhood he had worked together with dozens of others on Taniei Urrai’s land, harvesting melons in summer and olives in winter with an energy that had earned him the respect of his employer and his companions. Whoever knocked down the olives with Raffaele would finish the day first and best, and old Urrai often boasted of the results at supper, insisting that Raffaele was a superman in hand and word; Bonaria, who also knew of other superior qualities in Raffaele, would agree with carefully calculated stinginess. Where her father counted vines she counted pines, and if he dreamed of seas of golden ears of corn she was able to run her hand through a field of dark curls on certain Saturday afternoons when her father was not there, and no war would ever be able to extinguish Raffaele’s fire in her blood. They did talk, sometimes for hours, about the possibility he might be called up to the front, but Raffaele always assumed he would come home again.

“Will you still want me if I come back like Vincenzo Bellu?”

“With only one arm? Of course, because they’ll give you the Order of Vittorio Veneto and I’ll be your lady!” Bonaria had laughed softly and lightly touched his ears.

“I’m not joking. Would you still want me if I was a cripple? Deafened by a grenade or with no legs like Luigi Barranca?”

“I’d want you back in any condition, as long as you were still alive.”

Bonaria’s unconditional reply had not reassured him. At such times his voice had been darker than usual.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.