I'm Staying Here
A Novel
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3.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A mother recounts her life story to her long-lost daughter in this sweeping WW2 historical fiction novel about a community torn between Italian fascism and German Nazism.
“Spare, exquisite . . . a stunning testament to the power of words, even when they fail.” —Meg Waite Clayton, author of the international bestseller The Last Train to London
In the small village of Curon in South Tyrol, seventeen-year-old Trina longs for a different life. She dedicates herself to becoming a teacher, but the year that she qualifies—1923—Mussolini’s regime abolishes the use of German as a teaching language in the annexed Austrian territory. Defying their ruthless program of forced Italianization, Trina works for a clandestine network of schools in the valley, always with the risk of capture. In spite of this new climate of fear and uncertainty, she finds love and some measure of stability with Erich, an orphaned young man and her father’s helper.
Now married and a mother, Trina’s life is again thrown into uncertainty when Hitler’s Germany announces the “Great Option” in 1939, and communities in South Tyrol are invited to join the Reich and leave Italy. The town splits, and ever-increasing rifts form among its people. Those who choose to stay, like Trina and her family, are seen as traitors and spies; they can no longer leave the house without suffering abuse. Then one day Trina comes home and finds that her daughter is missing…
Inspired by the striking image of the belltower rising from Lake Resia, all that remains today of the village of Curon, Marco Balzano has written a poignant WW2 historical fiction novel that beautifully interweaves great moments in history with the lives of everyday people.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A mother living through the early days of WWII in northern Italy writes to her absent daughter, in Italian author Balzano's quietly devastating English-language debut. As a teenager and aspiring teacher in the village of Curon in 1923, Trina must switch to studying Italian after Mussolini, who annexed the region the year before, forbade the use of German. After Trina's marriage to Erich, she fails to land a teaching job and begins secretly teaching German until, in 1939, "Hitler's Germans" offer residents "the Great Option": join the Reich and leave Italy. Many locals take up the call, but Trina and her husband stay, only to discover that their young daughter, Marica, elects to leave with an aunt and uncle. The narrative is framed as Trina's letter to Marica, with heartbreaking accounts of her attempts to escape from the advancing Germans in 1943, and of the potential construction of a dam approved by Mussolini before he was deposed, which would condemn their villages to "disappear in a watery grave." The writing can be simplistic, but Balzano's unvarnished approach heightens the poignancy of a story based on real events: after the dam was built following the war, all that's left of Curon today is a bell tower. This tale of destruction is a blunt reminder of war's ability to destroy: a village, a way of life, and, in particular, a family.
