Can a prison free those who enter it? Elisabetta teaches maths in the Nisida youth detention centre. Every morning, the barrier is raised, her bag ends up in a locked cupboard along with all her thoughts and time is suspended; an island within an island where guilt can finally melt away. Almarina is a new student, doing her best, but things just don’t add up: from the classroom you can see the horizon, but no one will let you leave. The freedom of two solitudes told by a single voice, warm, intimate, political, capable of opening both mind and heart.’

Almarina

Written by Valeria Parrella
Translated from Italian by Alex Valente
Published: July 2021 by John Murray Press
Original publication: Einaudi editore, 2019