Nella pancia della balena
(In the belly of the whale) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
It’s not easy when you have to go to school in ripped sweatpants and old-fashioned shoes, your parents are separated, your mother always looks sad. But what if one day, on your way home, you find that she has disappeared without a trace? Marked by the appearance of the whale which, piece by piece, takes shape in the form of a mural on a suburban building, the story of a boy who has to come to terms with abandonment and the fragility of adults. [Publisher’s website]
Edited by: Centro MeTRa - Università di Bologna (Italy)
Comment:
This short but extremely intense novel by Alice Keller was shortlisted for the 2018 Andersen Award as the best book for children over 12 years old. Through the voice and feelings of a middle-school boy, it tells of one of the most ancestral fears of children, namely being abandoned. At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist is worried about his mother, who seems fragile and insecure after her divorce from his father, whom he never sees, but he still has hopes that everything will be all right. The disappearance of his mother then triggers a physical and metaphorical search not only for his parents, both of whom have disappeared, albeit in different ways, but also for himself, until the epilogue, which coincides with an awareness of the cruelty of the situation and the need to let himself be helped by those who are capable of doing so.