Per sempre
(Forever) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
On holiday with her family in a seaside tourist village, where her friends Valeria and Renata are also staying, Viola soon realises how boring the days are. The dullness of the holiday is broken by her encounter with Lili and Paola, two elderly lesbians who live in a caravan, and with Ireneo, a local boy who is working on restoring an old boat. Ireneo is charming, shy and not very talkative, and when she is around him Viola feels different, she feels truly herself. It doesn’t take long for love to spark between them. But Viola’s parents disapprove, even forbidding her from seeing him and punishing her. And her friends would probably not approve either, if they only knew… [Publisher’s website]
Edited by: Centro MeTRa - Università di Bologna (Italy)
Comment:
Assia Petricelli and Sergio Riccardi, winner of the 2014 Andersen Award for Best Comics with Cattive Ragazze, create “a story that delicately unveils the magic of first love and reveals the importance of accepting one’s own body and diversities.”[Publisher’s website] A coming-of-age graphic novel that describes with a sensitive touch and rhythm the path of female self-determination, the search for oneself, and the construction of one’s own identity free from social constraints. During the summer in which she grows up, Viola, who does not fit the beauty and femininity standards dictated by society and by her mother, wonders about love, friendship, the relationship with one’ s body and with the other sex, the freedom to be oneself, the need to fit into fixed social categories, etc. During a short but eventful holiday, she will also find answers by observing the people around her. Her encounters with Ireneo and with Lili and Paola, a homosexual couple who attract the gossip and prejudice of the whole holiday village, will prove to be crucial. Ironic, independent, free, strong, and outspoken, they will give Viola and her friends some good lessons on feminism and love. But Per sempre is not just about love in all its forms. Many themes intertwine in the illustrated pages, where the contrasts between the brightness of the sea and the beach and the figures in the shadows emphasise the characters’ feelings and emotions: teenage and generational conflicts; sex education and the importance of consent; toxic masculinity, jealousy, abuse and violence (never just physical); self-acceptance; illness and death. An invitation to “build gender relationships, as well as between parents and children, adults and teenagers, based on mutual understanding, in other words on a deep sense of responsibility towards ourselves and towards the people who enter our lives.” [Original Italian text by Assia Petricelli on La Repubblica Napoli]